Who moved my cheese??

[ByteHunter]

Sorry for the title, but I'm a bit puzzled by what is going on.

I have a laptop which has LMDE4 installed.
As it's about time to move on, I installed LMDE5 in parallel to LMDE4, whereby both installations share the same partition mounted to /boot.

i.e.

Code: Select all

/dev/sda1                 EF02  GRUB partition
/dev/sda2  -> /boot/efi   EF00  EFI partition
/dev/sda3  -> /boot       8300
/dev/sda4  -> /           8300  root of LMDE4
/dev/sda5  -> /           8300  root of LMDE5

All the menu entries in '/boot/grub/grub.cfg' are set so
LMDE4 appears with vmlinuz-4.19.0-22-amd under the 'primary' section ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
and
LMDE5 appears with vmlinuz-5.10.0-12-amd64 under the section ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###.

GRUB was obviously updated during the installation of LMDE5.

When I now boot into LMDE5 the '10_linux' section of the grub.cfg is updated to read
- 'menuentry 'LMDE 5 Elsie ...' or
- 'submenu Advanced options for LMDE 5 Elsie ...'.

If I then boot into LMDE4 the '10_linux' section of the grub.cfg is updated to read
- 'menuentry 'LMDE 4 Debbie ...' or
- 'submenu Advanced options for LMDE 4 Debbie ...'.

Now the question: Which part of the boot process is modifying the grub.cfg file??

Any ideas??

Cheers,
ByteHunter

[Termy]

You should ordinarily not edit '/boot/grub/grub.cfg', as I believe is even mentioned in that file; this is because your changes will get blasted away whenever GRUB is updated, such as with update-grub(8)/grub-mkconfig(8), which typically occurs when you update the kernel via Debian packages. Other packages may also call for a GRUB update, but I can't remember what they might be; I vaguely recall it happening, though. The file to edit is '/etc/default/grub', although you won't be able to do quite as much.

There may be another way to further customization GRUB menu, but it's probably going to be more hassle than it's worth.

I suspect the GRUB menu got modified during an update, which led you to believe it was the boot, since you wouldn't have seen the updated GRUB menu until you loaded back in again.

[ByteHunter]

Sorry if I left the impression that I edited the file, but no I didn't.
I'm also aware of the 'usual' update scenarios for the grub.cfg file.
I'm also not looking for any way to modify this file.

And no, I'm not led to believe it, it happens. Over and over again.

If I reboot out of LMDE5 and the GRUB menu shows up, the labels within 10_linux are set to LMDE5.
If I then boot into LMDE4 and reboot out of it again and the GRUB menu shows up again, the labels within 10_linux changed to LMDE4.
If I then boot into LMDE5 and reboot out of it again and the GRUB menu shows up again, the labels within 10_linux changed to LMDE5.
If I then boot into LMDE4 and reboot out of it again and the GRUB menu shows up again, the labels within 10_linux changed to LMDE4.
...

There is no login or any other interaction when the system is up, just a reboot.

If I keep the system in the GRUB menu for 5 min, boot, wait another 5 min and then login, I can verify that the modify and change time is modified during system boot.

Therefore something during system boot must modify this file!!

[linux-rox]

Why are you sharing the boot partition? For that matter, why do you have a boot partition? You have two systems writing the same file to the same location. Ordinarily, each OS gets its own boot directory. Then, on a UEFI system, which OS controls boot is determined by NVRAM.

My $0.02's worth? Rather than puzzle over the conflict, eliminate it.

[ByteHunter]

Why are you sharing the boot partition? For that matter, why do you have a boot partition?

I have not found a way yet to install two LinuxMint entries withinin UEFI.
Therefore there is only one relevant boot directory.
As the system partition are LUKS encrypted, to my knowledge, a separate boot partition is required.
But this has no impact on the actual question.

My $0.02's worth? Rather than puzzle over the conflict, eliminate it.

If I, throughout my live, would never have puzzled over conflicts/problems, I would never have learned as much as I did.
And to really eliminate/solve a conflict/problem you need to understand the nature of it.

Nevertheless, I boiled it down to that both installations (LMDE4 and LMDE5) temper with the /boot/grub/grub.cfg when the titles within the 10_linux section is not to there likening. And this happens during the boot as well as the shutdown process.

Now the educational question remains: Which process/task does this?

[linux-rox]

have not found a way yet to install two LinuxMint entries withinin UEFI.

Not terribly difficult, but not necessary. Only one system needs to be primary boot.

As the system partition are LUKS encrypted, to my knowledge, a separate boot partition is required.

But not only one, and there may be other solutions. Your computer, though, so good luck.

[ByteHunter]

have not found a way yet to install two LinuxMint entries within UEFI.

Not terribly difficult, but not necessary. Only one system needs to be primary boot.

If I remember correctly, the EFI-Directory '\debian' hardcoded within the signed shimx64 component of GRUB.
Can you explain your way of getting two LinuxMint entries within UEFI.

As the system partitions are LUKS encrypted, to my knowledge, a separate boot partition is required.

But not only one, and there may be other solutions.

Hmm, what benefit would a second boot partition bring to that scenario. Could you shed some light on that?

[linux-rox]

So you can snark at me some more? No thanks.

[ByteHunter]

So you can snark at me some more? No thanks.

It sounds like you feel offended.
Sorry if that's the case. There was no offense intended.
Maybe I'm a bit to straight forward and should use more 's

Cheers

[Termy]

[...]

I imagine it's a case of a language/culture barrier, or some other misunderstanding. Text alone can and often easily muddies the exchange of ideas — after all, we do use a lot of body language and things like tone and intonation matter. To me, you did come across a little 'off', but I can't put my finger on why; perhaps the OP felt similarly. I wonder if your initial post here set the tone, because it came across a bit antagonistic, at least to me. I hope you don't take my view personally — I'm fully aware I could've completely misread you.

I don't doubt this exchange was exasperated by the common expectation and stereotype that all us Linux lot are rude, arrogant, patronising, condescending, etc. It winds up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. Every now and then, I do come across posts from people (especially people new to Linux) who are quite rude, because they themselves feel attacked in some way, despite so many people actively and exhaustively trying to help them.

Either way, everything seems cordial. I'd like to see a resolution to this thread, because it seems like an interesting puzzle and is probably frustrating OP.

[MLED4]

I believe the debian-system-adjustments package mintifies grub. It runs as a service and is version-dependant. Install cindy, remove debian-system-adjustments, upgrade to debbie, grub still shows cindy etc.