Alma/Rocky Linux 9 support

[pacofelc]

Hey, Rocky Linux 9 is already out. Is there any chance it gets added to installimage? Thank's in advance.

[asciiprod]

Yes, eventually support will be added.

[asciiprod]

installimage includes limited support for RHEL9-based images since 38226a51 However due to shim unconditionally modifying the boot order and being unremovable as an essential package, support for RHEL-based images will be limited.

Also see: https://github.com/rhboot/shim/issues/568

[leetsin]

Thanks a lot Hetzner People 👍😎

@asciiprod as you have custom motherboards, will a custom bios(uefi) solve the net boot problem ?

[kleisauke]

and being unremovable as an essential package

shim is in fact removable, it's only marked as protected after commit https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/shim/c/f4bf84f7c52ca6b105e03ad22ef3f891d6b37364.

One could remove shim by executing:

$ dnf remove --setopt=protected_packages= "shim-*"

[asciiprod]

While that may allow removing shim, grub has been modified in these distributions and can no longer create an EFI binary. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1917213

[kleisauke]

While that may allow removing shim, grub has been modified in these distributions and can no longer create an EFI binary. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1917213

According to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1917213#c47, one should not use grub2-install on EFI systems and consider using efibootmgr as an alternative.

Perhaps this patch would help?:

--- a/rockylinux.sh
+++ b/rockylinux.sh
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ generate_config_grub() {
 
 write_grub() {
   if [ "$UEFI" -eq 1 ]; then
-    # we must NOT use grub2-install here. This will replace the prebaked
+    # we must NOT use efibootmgr here. This will replace the prebaked
     # grubx64.efi (which looks for grub.cfg in ESP) with a new one, which
     # looks for in in /boot/grub2 (which may be more difficult to read)
     rm -f "$FOLD/hdd/boot/grub2/grubenv"
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ write_grub() {
     for ((i=1; i<=COUNT_DRIVES; i++)); do
       if [ "$SWRAID" -eq 1 ] || [ "$i" -eq 1 ] ;  then
         local disk; disk="$(eval echo "\$DRIVE"$i)"
-        execute_chroot_command "grub2-install --no-floppy --recheck $disk 2>&1"
+        execute_chroot_command "efibootmgr -c -d $disk -p 1 -w -L \"Rocky Linux\" -l \EFI\rocky\grubx64.efi 2>&1"
         declare -i EXITCODE=$?
       fi
     done

(untested)

[kleisauke]

... it looks like https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1917213 is now resolved via commit https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/grub2/c/8a9297c4314b61eac1f47ab6444615eb9f13874d. You'll have to use the --force option to create the EFI boot entry.

[asciiprod]

Thank you for the info. Now we have to wait and see if this change will get picked up by the RHEL-clones

[leonardehrenfried]

What about the suggestion to use efibootmgr instead of grub-install?

Wouldn't that be the better solution?

[kleisauke]

I just requested a backport for that commit to RHEL 9 in PR https://github.com/rhboot/grub2/pull/135.

[kleisauke]

... that commit has just been backported to RHEL 9, see: https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/grub2/-/commit/6c0546793ae19d7a217cd7add5b7a493bfad41a6

It should become available in the upcoming RHEL 9.4.0 release. :tada:

[leonardehrenfried]

Sorry for the nag but is it going to be possible to use CentOS 9 now that the above fix has been added?

[kleisauke]

It looks like Hetzner now offers support for AlmaLinux 9, CentOS Stream 9 and Rocky Linux 9 on the AX41-NVMe servers: https://www.hetzner.com/dedicated-rootserver/matrix-ax#software-2286

[kleisauke]

It should become available in the upcoming RHEL 9.4.0 release.

Unfortunately, this change was not shipped in RHEL 9.4.

[kleisauke]

This fix has just been shipped in grub2-2.06-80.el9_4, so ignore my previous comment. See for reference: https://github.com/openela-main/grub2/commit/98b580a7c4a34170534dcae70a54199f60b7150e https://git.rockylinux.org/staging/rpms/grub2/-/commit/b524202569789ead872d1d71d35257f1e9d8a601 https://git.almalinux.org/rpms/grub2/commit/373fa37ba6d6083bb1a96c90494d0ca2309bb4a4

[pat-s]

I was able to install a fresh Alma9 on an AX42 -> instructions.