grub console settings with bootupd bootloader updates

[dustymabe]

In the OSBuild workflow we are using bootupd to do the bootloader install along with --with-static-configs which will copy into place the files under /usr/lib/bootupd/grub2-static/configs.d/

In coreos/fedora-coreos-config#2769 we added the configs needed for CoreOS which included 30_console.cfg with these contents:

$ cat 30_console.cfg 

# Any non-default console settings will be inserted here.
# CONSOLE-SETTINGS-START
# CONSOLE-SETTINGS-END

We then updated coreos-installer to update that config with the platform specific console settings (i.e. like a find/replace on CONSOLE-SETTINGS-START/CONSOLE-SETTINGS-END) and are in the process of adding a stage to OSBuild that will do the same.

However, a really good question here is what will happen on these provisioned machines the next time the bootloader is updated? Will /boot/grub2/30_console.cfg just get overwritten by bootupd with the static version that is in /usr/lib/bootupd/grub2-static/configs.d/30_console.cfg, thus losing the applied console settings?

We may need to adjust our strategy to have the static config be something like:

if [ -f console.cfg ]; then
  source console.cfg
fi

and then have our disk building processes (not bootupd) create console.cfg with:

# Any non-default console settings will be inserted here.
# CONSOLE-SETTINGS-START
# CONSOLE-SETTINGS-END

This ticket came out of a conversation I had with @travier

[cgwalters]

bootupd doesn't support updating the static configs right now, though it should.

[dustymabe]

bootupd doesn't support updating the static configs right now, though it should.

Right. I imagine a future where we want that in which case the current structure that we have (per the description above) is going to be lossy.

[travier]

Ah, coreos/bootupd#609 only does the tracking, not the updating part. I had misunderstood that.

[dustymabe]

@travier right. Either way let's assume that one day the static grub configs will get updated. Since nothing has shipped that uses bootupd --with-static-configs yet let's go ahead and perform a little musical chairs so we'll succeed either way.

Here is one proposal:

• rename 30_console.cfg to 30_console-source.cfg and update it to conditionally source in console.cfg if it exists.
• update coreos-installer to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see install: support grub2/30_console.cfg for console replacement coreos-installer#1360
• update coreos-assembler to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see coreos/coreos-assembler@9688318
• update the new coreos.platform OSBuild stage to create console.cfg
  • Add coreos.platforms stage osbuild/osbuild#1589

Another proposal would be making console.cfg a more official thing within bootupd. by making the if exists then source console.cfg part one of bootupd's builtin static configs.

• update bootupd to conditionally source in console.cfg in one or more of the files in https://github.com/coreos/bootupd/tree/main/src/grub2
• delete 30_console.cfg
• update coreos-installer to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see install: support grub2/30_console.cfg for console replacement coreos-installer#1360
• update coreos-assembler to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see coreos/coreos-assembler@9688318
• update the new coreos.platform OSBuild stage to create console.cfg
  • Add coreos.platforms stage osbuild/osbuild#1589

[travier]

Making it part of the main bootupd config seems like a good idea as well as it's definitely something that will be used on all platforms.

[cgwalters]

The second one seems sane to me. One thing to bear in mind is that bootupd is also now used by anaconda if present, and ultimately I think we want to align the behavior and logic of console configuration with that too (the overlap/dup between osbuild/anaconda is another thread).

[dustymabe]

OK. Copying forward the proposal and starting to work on the checklist:

• update bootupd to conditionally source in console.cfg in one or more of the files in https://github.com/coreos/bootupd/tree/main/src/grub2
  • 👉 grub2: source in a console.cfg file if exists bootupd#619
• delete 30_console.cfg
  • 👉 overlay.d/40grub: delete 30_console.cfg file fedora-coreos-config#2861
• update coreos-installer to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see install: support grub2/30_console.cfg for console replacement coreos-installer#1360
  • 👉 install: use console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg coreos-installer#1423
• update coreos-assembler to look for console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg
  • see coreos/coreos-assembler@9688318
  • 👉 gf-set-platform: use console.cfg for preferred file name coreos-assembler#3738
• update the new coreos.platform OSBuild stage to create console.cfg
  • Add coreos.platforms stage osbuild/osbuild#1589
  • 👉 Add coreos.platforms stage osbuild/osbuild#1589

[dustymabe]

Updated #1671 (comment) with links to:

• install: use console.cfg rather than 30_console.cfg coreos-installer#1423
• grub2: source in a console.cfg file if exists bootupd#619
• overlay.d/40grub: delete 30_console.cfg file fedora-coreos-config#2861
• gf-set-platform: use console.cfg for preferred file name coreos-assembler#3738
• Add coreos.platforms stage osbuild/osbuild#1589

[dustymabe]

I think I can close this out now.