2 ms·

I also switched to REFind because I wanted to boot my various Linux installations from encrypted ZFS pools, but after realizing how much more convenient it was

by veidr 4y ago

I also switched to REFind because I wanted to boot my various Linux installations from encrypted ZFS pools, but after realizing how much more convenient it was (because it can just boot from whatever bootable OS installation it finds by scanning the disk), now I always use it instead of grub, regardless. I noted recently that it also sees systemd-boot installations and will boot from those, if desired (in my case it was a fresh installation of Pop OS, which uses systemd-boot by default). For me, it's unambiguously better (meaning easier, with no extra periodic steps required to maintain my ability to boot whatever bootable thing I want), but I am curious about what scenarios would make one want to use systemd-boot (or grub) instead.

rfoo 4y ago
> I am curious about what scenarios would make one want to use systemd-boot (or grub) instead. I have Linux VMs which boots in ~2s (to ssh login; ~700ms to userspace). I use systemd-boot because it has nicer integration with my distro of choice than bare EFI stub, and it adds very minimal overhead in boot time.
- alias_neo 4y ago
  That's pretty impressive, can you share some information about what you're using to achieve that?
  - rfoo 4y ago
    My preferred distro is Debian. Use linux-image-cloud; use a modern hypervisor with no legacy devices (only virtio etc); use tiny-initramfs; mask systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; add cryptomgr.notests noreplace-smp to kernel command line. I think that's all, and use a moderately fast CPU (i7-8700K which is already 5 years old).
    - alias_neo 4y ago
      Amazing, thanks for the reply! Debian is my preferred base so I'll give this a try! When you say modern hypervisor, do you mean, not KVM? How do you get around the UEFI/BIOS post time which is usually a few seconds by itself?
      - bityard 4y ago
        rfoo is saying that their VMs boot in under 2 seconds, not the hypervisor host.
        alias_neo 4y ago
        I didn't ask about the Hypervisor host. I'm talking about the time taken by OMVF/SeaBIOS or whatever equivalent in the VM; which is why I asked about the type of VM/Hypervisor because that might not apply.

by veidr 4y ago

rfoo 4y ago

> I am curious about what scenarios would make one want to use systemd-boot (or grub) instead. I have Linux VMs which boots in ~2s (to ssh login; ~700ms to userspace). I use systemd-boot because it has nicer integration with my distro of choice than bare EFI stub, and it adds very minimal overhead in boot time.

alias_neo 4y ago
That's pretty impressive, can you share some information about what you're using to achieve that?
- rfoo 4y ago
  My preferred distro is Debian. Use linux-image-cloud; use a modern hypervisor with no legacy devices (only virtio etc); use tiny-initramfs; mask systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; add cryptomgr.notests noreplace-smp to kernel command line. I think that's all, and use a moderately fast CPU (i7-8700K which is already 5 years old).
  - alias_neo 4y ago
    Amazing, thanks for the reply! Debian is my preferred base so I'll give this a try! When you say modern hypervisor, do you mean, not KVM? How do you get around the UEFI/BIOS post time which is usually a few seconds by itself?
    - bityard 4y ago
      rfoo is saying that their VMs boot in under 2 seconds, not the hypervisor host.
      - alias_neo 4y ago
        I didn't ask about the Hypervisor host. I'm talking about the time taken by OMVF/SeaBIOS or whatever equivalent in the VM; which is why I asked about the type of VM/Hypervisor because that might not apply.