UX/Bootloader

From openSUSE

Reasons for change

Compared to other distributions like Ubuntu 7.04 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 our boot loader GUI is pretty complex and the question is, whether all this possibilities for changing and editing things have to be visible in the GUI.

Definitions

• What is the user's goal?
  Boot different operating systems.
• Which functions are necessary to achieve this goal?
  Overview of available boot loader sections possibility to configure the sections and the boot loader.
• Which tasks does the user perform with this module?
  • Add/edit/delete a section
  • Choose whether to use the boot loader
  • Choose the location of the boot loader
  • Protect the boot loader

Benchmarking

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Boot loader settings presented during the installation process

Advanced boot loader settings presented during the installation process

Possible settings:

• Use boot loader?
• Add/edit/delete boot section
• Use boot loader password?
• Default boot section?

Advanced boot loader configuration

• Boot loader location
• Force LBA32 (not normally required) that allows you to exceed the 1024 cylinder limit for the boot partition
• Entering kernel parameters that are directly passed to the kernel when booting

Ubuntu 7.04

Boot loader

Properties of the boot section

Possible settings:

• Add/properties/delete
• Prioritization of boot sections
• Default boot section?
• Time before starting from default boot section

openSUSE 10.2

Section management

Boot loader installation

Boot loader options

Sections management:

• Prioritization of boot sections
• Add/edit/delete boot section
• Default boot section?
• Other
  • Edit configuration files
  • Propose new configuration
  • Start from scratch
  • Reread configuration from disk
  • Propose and merge with existing GRUB menus
  • Restore MBR of hard disc
  • Write boot loader code on disc

Boot loader installation

• Boot loader type
• Boot loader location
• Boot loader installation details
• Boot loader options
  • Set active flag in partition table for boot partition
  • Debugging flag
  • Write generic boot code to MBR
  • Hide menu on boot
  • Fallback section if default fails
  • Graphical menu file
  • Password?
  • Serial connection parameters
  • Terminal definitions
  • Timeout in seconds

Mock-ups

Overview of bootloader

Advanced configuration

Overview:

• Prioritization of boot sections
• Add/edit/delete boot section
• Default boot section?

Advanced configuration

• Boot loader location?
• Password?
• Time before starting from default boot section