Supported Scenarios

The goal of this document is to have a single source of information which scenarios are supported by yast2-bootloader.

bootloaders

• grub2
• grub2-efi
  • only for UEFI boot
  • only with GPT (see bug)
• systemd-boot
  • only for UEFI boot
• none

Partition table

• DOS partition table
• GPT
  • requires bios_boot partition if stage1 will be on disk
• DASD
  • only s390x

storage configuration

• software RAID
  • /boot cannot be on RAID unless it is RAID1
  • cannot have stage1 on MD RAID1, so when /boot is on RAID1, then boot from MBR have to be used
• LVM
  • /boot cannot be encrypted (not bootloader limitation see bug)
  • LVM can contain volumes on partition-less disks as long as at least one volume lives on partition and disk with such volume is first in boot order. see bug
• multipath
• Device mapper
• local hard disk (including USB/ieee1394)
• local (hardware) RAID array of any type
• BIOS-RAID (handled via DM-RAID or MD RAID)
• iSCSI server with persistent IP address / disk identification
• NFSv3,v4 share on server with fixed IP address

Architectures

• x86
• x86_64
• ppc64(le and be)
  • only GRUB2
  • there must be at least one PReP partition which size must not exceed 8MB (see fate)
  • there's no requirement on the partition number
  • good PReP disk layout overview PowerLinux Boot howto
  • boot code implemented in SLOF - Slimline Open Firmware - used e.g. by qemu
  • full reference (quite ancient) CHRP
• s390x
  • /boot/zipl must be on ext fs ( unless upgraded from working zipl configuration )
  • only GRUB2

Stage1 locations

• MBR of disk where is /boot
• MBR of identical disks in MD RAID if it contains /boot fate
• /boot
• extended partition
  • /boot has to be on a logical partition

Required packages

As we've previously mentioned, we have 3 options for bootloaders: grub2, grub2-efi, and none. The bootloader option, the system configuration, and its architecture will define the required packages. Besides that, the system will always require the package kexec-tools unless the installation is happening through a live medium.

grub2

This is the most common option and requires grub2. There is also special cases that may require additional packages:

• Generic mbr binary files will require the package syslinux.
• If using trusted boot option, systems with x86_64 and i386 architectures will require the packages trustedgrub2 and trustedgrub2-i386-pc.

grub2-efi

This option requires packages based on the architecture of the system:

• i386 architecture requires: grub2-i386-efi.
• x86_64 architecture requires: grub2-x86_64-efi. If secure boot is used, it also requires shim and mokutil.
• arm architecture requires: grub2-arm-efi.
• aarch64 architecture requires: grub2-arm64-efi.

systemd-boot

If you're running a multiboot EFI system, systemd-boot can provide easier boot management and may even reduce your boot times. Systemd-boot will be supported on x86_64 EFI architecture only.

none

This option has no additional package requirement.