(name . bug-guix@gnu.org)(address . bug-guix@gnu.org)
Hello,
I use a coreboot that does not have a VGA option rom, which means Grub can't use `gfxterm`, so I have this setting in my `operating-system`:
(bootloader-configuration
; ...
(terminal-outputs '(console)))
This lets me see a boot menu at startup even without the VGA option rom.
However, recently when I did a `guix system delete-generations` to remove some old configurations, I saw to my dismay that the `/boot/grub/grub.cfg` got reverted to `terminal_output gfxterm`.
Creating a pointless whitespace change to a daemon configuration file and `guix system reconfigure` got this fixed. This workaround is undesirable since it makes deleting old generations a multi-step, non-atomic process.
The expected behavior is that whatever settings were used in my latest `bootloader-configuration` should not be touched by `guix system delete-generations`.
The actual behavior is `guix system delete-generations` uses the default configuration.
Looking at the code, it seems to be an issue with `guix/scripts/system.scm`'s `reinstall-bootloader` function:
```scheme
;; Use the detected bootloader with default configuration.
;; It will be enough to allow the system to boot.
(bootloader-config (bootloader-configuration
(bootloader bootloader)))
```
While "it will be enough to allow the system to boot", it is not enough for me, on my specific system, to get a convenient boot menu where I can, you know, select older systems (absolutely vital due to the brittleness of Shepherd). On my system, using `terminal_output gfxterm` leads to an "invisible" boot menu, making Guix's vaunted ability to have multiple bootable systems fairly useless --- I can't be sure what system I end up booting into since I can't see the boot menu. I think on other systems as well that need other terminal outputs (such as some sort of `serial`) this will be a problem as well.
A possible solution would be to check if the current system has a `provenance`, and if so, to read in the file and look for the `configuration` field. Then read *that* file and extract its `bootloader` field, and to only fall back to a default configuration if that attempt fails. See https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-03/msg00294.htmlfor similar idea. Would this be an acceptable solution?
Thanks
raid5atemyhomework