Hello, On Sun, 2025-01-12 at 14:13 +0100, Pascal Hambourg wrote: > On 12/01/2025 at 11:53, Holger Wansing wrote: > > Cyril Brulebois <k...@debian.org> wrote (Sun, 12 Jan 2025 11:21:08 +0100): > > > oliviosu_ppc6...@tutanota.com <oliviosu_ppc6...@tutanota.com> > > > (2025-01-12): > > > > Hello, > > > > installing Trixie Alpha 1 on Tyan TN71-BP012 (POWER8) > > > > (/images/trixie_di_alpha1/ppc64el 2024/12/31) > > > > > > > > Installation goes well but installed system isn't bootable with > > > > Petitboot. > > > > Installation was made choosing automated partitioning for an entrier > > > > disk with LVM and luks. > > > > Doing that unencrypted /boot partition is ext4 and Petitboot can't see > > > > it. > > > > When partitioning if I edit /boot partition and set it to ext2 then > > > > after finishing installation, > > > > PetitBoot see it and I'm able to boot in the installed system. > > > > > > Sorry to hear about that. Looping in debian-boot@ who's responsible for > > > the installer components that implement those choices. > > The move from ext2 to ext4 for /boot was in response to bug #985463 > <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=985463> after it was > considered that bootloaders such as GRUB and U-Boot currently used with > Debian supported ext4.
Well, the thing is that a real modern bootloader doesn't require a separate boot partition in the first place. The main reason for using a dedicated partition for /boot is because older firmware implementations and bootloaders have various limitations with regards to the format and size of the partition where either later stages of the bootloader or the kernel plus initrd are stored. And since firmware implementations are usually not changing their limitations for existing hardware, the format and size limitations for the boot partitions can't just easily changed. Switching the boot partition to a modern filesystem or making it considerably larger defeats the whole purpose of a boot partition. This is why I was very skeptical about the switch from ext2 to ext4 in the first place and the argument mentioned in the bug report was very weak in my opinion as it basically just the complaint about incorrect file dates beyond 2038 which I consider a minor annoyance compared to the possible boot breakage for various supported hardware systems. > Inndeed it is unfortunate that a modern boot loader like Petitboot does > not support ext4. It is even unexpected from a boot loader based on a > Linux kernel, as mentioned in > <https://open-power.github.io/petitboot/overview.html>. It might be unexpected but does not excuse us from making such changes without verifying first that they don't break booting on supported hardware. Adrian -- .''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz : :' : Debian Developer `. `' Physicist `- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
