http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/grub2/grub2/

here is the content of your build.

I will post each patch I made in a separate comment, giving a deep info about the patch.

This patch is very similar to the grubconfig.archlinux.patch currently in grub2-1.98-3. But it have 2 things that patch omitted:

1. It fails to recognize the kernel26-fallback.img, which means that no entry for
that image is not created. The area of my patch that handles that is as follows
@@ -109,13 +109,12 @@
dirname=`dirname $linux`
rel_dirname=`make_system_path_relative_to_its_root $dirname`
version=`echo $basename | sed -e "s,^[^0-9]*-,,g"`
- alt_version=`echo $version | sed -e "s,\.old$,,g"`
+ base_init=`echo $basename | sed -e "s,vmlinuz,kernel,g"`
+ alt_version="${base_init}-fallback"
linux_root_device_thisversion="${LINUX_ROOT_DEVICE}"

initrd=
- for i in "initrd.img-${version}" "initrd-${version}.img" \
- "initrd-${version}" "initrd.img-${alt_version}" \
- "initrd-${alt_version}.img" "initrd-${alt_version}"; do
+ for i in "${base_init}.img"; do
if test -e "${dirname}/${i}" ; then
initrd="$i"
break
@@ -130,6 +129,9 @@

linux_entry "${OS}" "${version}" false \
"${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT}"
+ initrd="${alt_version}.img"
+ linux_entry "${OS}" "${version} Fallback" false \
+ "${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT}"
if [ "x${GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY}" != "xtrue" ]; then
linux_entry "${OS}" "${version}" true \
"single ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX}"

What I do is created a new variable to hold the main img name (kernel26), and then using the
alt_version variable unused in Arch to hold the kernel26-fallback name. And later added another
linux entry between the 2 included in the script to include the fallback image. Maybe this approach
is not the best, but it works.

2. grubconfig.archlinux.patch first fix do this
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@
CLASS="--class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os"

if [ "x${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR}" = "x" ] ; then
- OS=GNU/Linux
+ OS="Arch Linux"
else
- OS="${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} GNU/Linux"
- CLASS="--class $(echo ${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]') ${CLASS}"
+ OS="${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} Arch Linux"
+ CLASS="--class $(echo ${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' ) ${CLASS}"
fi

First, that if executes the following way. If a GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR entry
is not found in /etc/default/grub, then the first section is executed, otherwise
the else with the OS and CLASS are defined.

What I do in that case was to follow the default of other Linux distros, and
have the GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR variable defined in /etc/default/grub. In that case
the first section (if) don't have to be modified at all since will not be executed.
The else suppresses the GNU/Linux attached to GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR since we are not called
Arch GNU/Linux or Arch Linux GNU/Linux.
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@
if [ "x${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR}" = "x" ] ; then
OS=GNU/Linux
else
- OS="${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} GNU/Linux"
- CLASS="--class $(echo ${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]') ${CLASS}"
+ OS="${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR}"
+ CLASS="--class $(echo ${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' | tr -d ' ') ${CLASS}"
fi

by no defining GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR, the CLASS variable will not be defined. Also I change
the CLASS assignment to remove the space between Arch and Linux. Unlike the OS entry,
that one cannot have the space.

And speaking of the CLASS, that variable is used only for GFXMODE (GFX_THEME variable used).
While Arch do not support themes as standard, skipping that fix will prevent users
from seeing icons on Arch entries when enable themes, and is inoffensive in other configurations.

The 05_archtheme script was based on the one from Debian package. While arch strip down
version will most likely will work without problems, the script is executed after the timeout entry
which resides in 00_header. That means that in some configurations the theme will not be
executed until after the timeout is over.

I opened a bug on debian more than a month ago http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=564180
describing the problem. While I haven't tested menu color entries only, again if a
user decides to include theme information at that place, it will be in trouble land.

Following the way that upstream wants grub2 to work, is to define the entries in /etc/default/grub
and grub-mkconfig placing them where they should go, before the timeout, like in the GFX_THEME entries
already included in the 00_header.

The patch included, add support of the menu entries in grub-mkconfig, and 00_header.
While grub accepts them, the script don't know about their existence. With those changes,
and the entries defined in the /etc/default/grub, they will be placed before the timeout
entry in /boot/grub/grub.cfg

While grub has the option to accept images, again the script grub-mkconfig fails to
recognize, or use the entry at all. This patch places that support just over
the GRUB_THEME support in 00_header, and add the entry to grub-mkconfig list of
options. In addition to adding the theme if defined, it searches for the type of
picture module needed by the image. Due to a known issue in grub2, modules
are not autoloaded. You have to load them manually.

Again while Arch do not do theming, skipping this will cause many headaches in the
community when the option fails to work.

Opps,forgot the background image patch (wallpapers).

While GFX_THEME is handled currently by 00_header, due to the grub error
that fails to load dependencies, they fail to load. This one adds
code to the GFX_THEME section to search for fonts and images. Detect
the images format, and add the entries just before setting the theme.

Like previous patches, not needed by Arch unbranded style, but will
take a lot of issues out when people start using the feature.

If the user decides to activate the hidden timeout, there is an upstream bug
in grub-mkconfig, where it enables the timeout as this:

if sleep$verbose --interruptible ${GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT} ; then
set timeout=${GRUB_TIMEOUT}
fi

That means exactly what it looks. It will enable a interruptible hidden timeout counter,
and when that counter expires, or is interrupted, it will performed the regular
grub timeout. The fix is to set that set timeout to 0.

This was, also with the 05_theme, part of the issue reported to debian.

Except for the arch-script fixes, all other patches are diffed against a clean grub2-1.98
source. So I will be able to send them upstream to fix the issues mentioned here.

Grub2 source do not provide a /etc/grub.d/xx_script to create memtest86+ entries.
I remade the one from debian a little more simplified and using more up to date
grub script syntax.

The file should be installed as follows:
install -Dm755 ${srcdir}/20_memtest86+ $startdir/pkg/etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

If the file is not executable, will not be invoked by grub-mkconfig.

And the extended grub configuration. It has very safe settings: no wallpaper, theme, sound or
even menu color set as default. Resolution as default (640x480), with a commented entry of a
very safe by today's day of 1024x768. Also the GFX_PAYLOAD_KEEP entry is commented.

Forgot something.

Since grub handles now more files, the PKGBUILD needs to backup 3 files instead of one.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg -> the lasted active boot configuration
/etc/default/grub -> user configuration used to generate grub.cfg
/etc/grub.d/40_custom -> a file designated by upstream to store custom entries, or
entries not recognized by the other scripts.

backup=('boot/grub/grub.cfg' '/etc/default/grub' '/etc/grub.d/40_custom')

thanks for the explanations. If it defaults to some sane 'boots everywhere' config then I see no problem not to implement it. When you send your patches upstream can you link me the upstream bug reports so I can follow (if the bug is already closed by then e-mail should work).

Let me get a package up here in the next few days so you can verify that it indeed does what you intended it to do.

added all of above patched to -4 in the repos, please test. (I had to put the original grub.cfg from the 1.97 release back as it was removed on upgrading in the PKGBUILD so had to release it now)

Included the report links from grub bugtracker

hidden timeout
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?29250

theme deps
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?29251

background image support in scripts
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?29252

menu color entries support in scripts
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?29258

Also I had 2 issues in my forum thread to be resolved. And saw that someone opened a ticket about LVM. Debian package has a fix for that. I'm gonna release a new package in AUR (with another name btw) to test with the community 2 issues, then I'm gonna open tickets with patches as soon I confirmed they work.

This change should not be in a hurry, but need to add bison to the makedepends. Is needed for compilation and that package is not installed by default the last time I checked, unless the user installed the whole devel section of the core CD.

thanks for the links, looking forward to the new tested patches.

Bison does not have to be in makedepends, it is in base-devel, you are supposed to have that whole group installed when building packages.