> And then: GRUB. I still hate GRUB. (I will probably always hate GRUB: It still has too much interdependence between boot and system environments. It has done an OK job at autocnfiguring itself for a couple of decades, but that interdependence remains, and things can get hairy on reboot when the autoconfig doesn't do the right thing for whatever reason. It all feels like it is too limited, and also too far-reaching -- concurrently.)
GRUB might disappear in the future. You might already switch to systemd-boot (which is basically gummyboot if my understanding is correct?).
But Lennard Poettering & co is working on UKI (unified kernel image) that should make linux bootable from UEFI directly (no grub or other boot loaders needed).
I didn't dive that much into UKIs but if my understanding is correct an UKI should be a bundle comprising a linux kernel, an initramfs and a few more things, packed as an executable that UEFI can launch.
This should simplify a few things (like cryptographic chain of trust) and make some things smoother.
Directly booting Linux kernels on EFI has been possible for quite a while thanks to the EFI stub[0], which is maintained by the kernel developers.
I'm not sure if having yet another implementation of EFI booting Linux kernels, such as UKI, especially if done without support from the kernel developer community, will bring anything but useless competition and strife. The whole kdbus controversy comes to mind.
Vouch, EFISTUB has been by far the fastest method of booting a Linux kernel for me. It's also prettier IMHO, since there already is a framebuffer set up with the correct resolution for my display, provided directly by the UEFI.
Especially if you already compile your own kernels, IMHO, there's almost no excuse not to use EFISTUB other than if your specific firmware isn't compatible with it for whatever reason.
GRUB might disappear in the future. You might already switch to systemd-boot (which is basically gummyboot if my understanding is correct?).
But Lennard Poettering & co is working on UKI (unified kernel image) that should make linux bootable from UEFI directly (no grub or other boot loaders needed).
I didn't dive that much into UKIs but if my understanding is correct an UKI should be a bundle comprising a linux kernel, an initramfs and a few more things, packed as an executable that UEFI can launch.
This should simplify a few things (like cryptographic chain of trust) and make some things smoother.