The openSUSE project has announced that openSUSE Tumbleweed, its rolling-release distribution, has switched to using GRUB2-BLS as the default bootloader for new installations via the YaST installer in UEFI mode. Previously, GRUB2 was the standard for such installations, but this change aims to support full disk encryption (FDE) based on systemd, which is increasingly relevant for modern UEFI systems.
GRUB2-BLS is a variant of the GRUB2 bootloader that has been modified by the Fedora project to ensure compatibility with the Boot Loader Specification (BLS). This specification allows for boot entries to be stored as small text files within the /boot/efi/loader/entries directory. Future updates of GRUB2 are expected to incorporate these BLS compatibility patches natively.
One of the key benefits of GRUB2-BLS is the simplified management of the bootloader. With this version, the system no longer requires manual commands like grub2-mkconfig or grub2-install to generate configuration files or to update the bootloader. Instead, GRUB2-BLS automatically checks the boot entries directory and generates the boot menu dynamically at boot time.
Furthermore, the upgrade process has been streamlined. The infrastructure in openSUSE handles kernel updates transparently, particularly when using btrfs as the filesystem. GRUB2-BLS is implemented as a single EFI binary located in /boot/efi/EFI/opensuse, bundling all necessary resources, which were previously distributed across multiple locations when using GRUB2.
Users will also find that modifying kernel command line arguments has become more straightforward with GRUB2-BLS. They can easily edit these parameters within the bootloader or within the /etc/kernel/cmdline file, followed by running sdbootutil update-all-entries to apply the changes.
While it is technically feasible to upgrade existing installations from GRUB2 to GRUB2-BLS, this practice is generally discouraged unless users are prepared to handle the complexities involved, mainly increasing the EFI System Partition (ESP) size. For those interested in attempting this migration, official instructions are available.
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