Syslinux - May 2012 - Scientific Linux, Centos, Fedora, etc without grub (only extlinux)

OK, I can do Debian and Ubuntu installs that don't use grub (and don't
even install it) and instead only use extlinux. The extlinux
configuration gets automatically updated during kernel upgrades,
changes to extlinux configuration in /etc, and so forth.

Is there anyway to do this in a straightforward (or semi
straightforward) way in a modern RedHat derivative? On old legacy
installs that the kernel never/rarely gets updated, sure, it is not
hard to maintain extlinux configuration by hand. But on an
installation where the kernel is updated semi-regularly, I don't want
to have to fix my extlinux configuration by hand each time.

I've looked into it some, but I've not found a standard way of doing
it yet. (But I've not dug into it all that hard).

As I said, with Debian/Ubuntu it is very easy to use extlinux instead
of grub from beginning of an install. (ok, not the default install
media CDs from Canonical, I'm talking about a debootstrap based
install).

My RedHat derivative installs would likely originate from my own
install bootstrap via yum.

Dwight

On 05/24/2012 12:14 AM, Dwight Schauer wrote:
> OK, I can do Debian and Ubuntu installs that don't use grub (and
don't
> even install it) and instead only use extlinux. The extlinux
> configuration gets automatically updated during kernel upgrades,
> changes to extlinux configuration in /etc, and so forth.
> 
> Is there anyway to do this in a straightforward (or semi
> straightforward) way in a modern RedHat derivative? On old legacy
> installs that the kernel never/rarely gets updated, sure, it is not
> hard to maintain extlinux configuration by hand. But on an
> installation where the kernel is updated semi-regularly, I don't want
> to have to fix my extlinux configuration by hand each time.
> 
> I've looked into it some, but I've not found a standard way of
doing
> it yet. (But I've not dug into it all that hard).
> 
> As I said, with Debian/Ubuntu it is very easy to use extlinux instead
> of grub from beginning of an install. (ok, not the default install
> media CDs from Canonical, I'm talking about a debootstrap based
> install).
> 
> My RedHat derivative installs would likely originate from my own
> install bootstrap via yum.
> 
Most of the infrastructure is there, but as far as I know noone has
taken the last pieces and pushed them into Fedora.  The Fedora people
have said they will accept those changes if they get them.

What I do on systems that don't work with Grub is I just have a small
shell script to create the extlinux configuration and just run it
manually or from cron.

	-hpa


-- 
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel.  I don't speak on their behalf.