How do I get my Tumbleweed install called 'GNOME Next' in GRUB menus in a way that isn't overridden?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi,

I have installed Tumbleweed and added the GNOME:Next repository so I can have the latest developmental releases of all GNOME-related software. I have another Tumbleweed install on this PC (with just the latest stable releases of GNOME and KDE per Tumbleweed’s default), along with a Leap 15.0 (wanted the honour of being a tester :)) install and I’d like for GRUB to tell the two apart with different names for both. If I run:


grub2-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi /dev/sda

from anyone one of them it adds a ‘opensuse’ folder to /boot/efi/EFI, overriding any previous opensuse folder in there. It would be great if I could have two separate boot entries available in the UEFI firmware for my two different Tumbleweed installs. Another for my Leap install would be great, but I am willing to settle for just two different ones for my Tumbleweed installs. The other thing I want is for the GRUB entries for these Tumbleweed installs to have distinctive names, to make it easier for me to identify them (although I am aware these GRUB entries do mention their partition, which is different for the two different installs, with one being on /dev/sda15 and the other on /dev/sda20, but I’d still appreciate a different name for the two different installs). One solution that works until the openSUSE-release package is upgraded is to change /etc/os-release to:


NAME="GNOME Next"
# VERSION="20180131 "
ID=opensuse
ID_LIKE="suse"
VERSION_ID="20180131"
PRETTY_NAME="GNOME Next"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20180131"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.opensuse.org"
HOME_URL="https://www.opensuse.org/"

Then when I run grub2-install on the two separate Tumbleweed installs I get two separate folders in /boot/efi/EFI, one called opensuse and another named gnome. Likewise in GRUB menus I see the GNOME:Next install is called ‘GNOME Next’ instead of ‘openSUSE Tumbleweed’. Unfortunately, as said earlier, however, whenever the openSUSE-release package is upgraded (which happens roughly once every 2-4 days, I think, on a regularly-updated Tumbleweed install) this edit gets overridden. Is there a way to prevent this?

Thanks for your time,
Brenton

#2

(rather irritating that I cannot edit the above post any more, but to clarify replace the:

I have another Tumbleweed install on this PC (with just the latest stable releases of GNOME and KDE per Tumbleweed’s default), along with a Leap 15.0 (wanted the honour of being a tester :)) install and I’d like for GRUB to tell the two apart with different names for both.

with:

I have another Tumbleweed install on this PC (with just the latest stable releases of GNOME and KDE per Tumbleweed’s default), along with a Leap 15.0 (wanted the honour of being a tester :)) install and I’d like for GRUB to tell the two Tumbleweed installs apart with different names for both.

)

#3

You can put a legacy menu.lst type entry in 90_persistent section of grub.cfg. This will always remain unchanged on grub updates.
Your only problem then, would be that you have to update that entry whenever you update it’s kernel version.

#4

Thanks for giving me an additional option, but I must admit I’m inclined to think that openSUSE-release is likely to be updated no more frequently than the kernel so your method is not likely to save me any work over my /etc/os-release solution.

#5

It’s only the kernel update that affects the 90_persistent entry and I would think that’s not likely to happen every 2-4 days. Unless I’ve misunderstood your problem.

#6

Edit “/etc/default/grub”. Change the “GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR” line to read:

GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="GNOME Next"

You then need to reinstall grub2. You can probably do this using Yast bootloader, but you might have to change something to get it to reinstall (hint: you can then change it back).

I don’t actually recommend this. However, I do have both “opensuse” and “betasuse” on one of my boxes, and that’s how I did it.

The downside, is that some UEFI implementations get confused if there are too many entries.

I should note that, with this change, the UEFI boot entry will show up as “gnome” or “gnome-secureboot”. The grub menu will have “GNOME Next” for its main entry. But in your other Tumebleweed, the grub entry for this will still say “Tumbleweed on /dev/xxx” or something like that (if you have not turned off probing for other systems).

Check my blog post if you want to know what I am doing in this situation.

#7

I think nrickert’s solution is best, so thanks. Seems like the solution that requires me to edit files manually the least.