Kernelstub

The automatic manager for booting Linux on (U)EFI.

Kernelstub is a utility to automatically manage your OS's EFI System Partition (ESP). It makes it simple to copy the current kernel and initramfs image onto the ESP so that they are automatically probable by most EFI boot loaders as well as the EFI firmware itself. It can also set up the system's NVRAM to add entries to the firmware boot menu for the kernel (and keep these options up to date when new kernel versions are installed).

Installation

Installation can be handled through the supplied Debian packaging as well as the python packaging. If kernelstub is packaged in your distro's repositories, you can install kernelstub through the kernelstub package.

To build a debian package locally, first install the build dependencies. On Pop!_OS, you can install the build dependencies using this command:

sudo apt build-dep kernelstub

Otherwise, you will need to install the following packages:

python3-all
pyflakes3
debhelper (>= 7.4.3)
dh-python

Then use these commands to build the package:

git clone https://github.com/pop-os/kernelstub
cd kernelstub
dpkg-buildpackage -b -us -uc
sudo dpkg -i ../kernelstub*.deb

For installation on non-debian systems, or if you prefer to use Python packaging, use:

git clone https://github.com/pop-os/kernelstub
cd kernelstub
sudo python3 setup.py install --record=installed_files.txt

For your convenience, this will create a list of all files installed on the system in the installed_files.txt file, so that you can easily remove the package later.

Usage

Usage is fairly straightforward and usually only requires running the command as root with su/sudo. If your computer requires special kernel parameters to boot, you can specify them as such:

sudo kernelstub -o "options_go here wrapped in-quotes"

Running the command with -o will save the options used into the user section of the configuration file (see Configuration below) so that you don't need to specify them manually each time you run it.

Kernelstub assumes the quiet splash options by default, since these generally work on every system, at least for booting up to a usable system.

You can get output of the program using the -v/--verbose option. There are three levels of verbosity. The default is to only show Warning, Error, and Critical failure messages. With one -v, kernelstub will display information about its progress to the command line. Two -v flags will also display debugging information generally only useful to developers.

By default, kernelstub will attempt to set up an entry in the system NVRAM to boot the kernel directly. If you want to use kernelstub with a separate program (e.g. bootctl/systemd-boot or rEFIt/rEFInd), you can use the -m flag. This causes kernelstub to copy the kernel and initrd into the ESP, but not set up any NVRAM entries. The -l option also explicitly sets up the configuration for system-boot or gummiboot. These options are also stored in the config file.

There are other options as well, as detailed below:

*These options save information to the config file.

**This may overwrite another OS's information.

⁺Does not add options if they are already present in the configuration, or remove options if they are not present. Each option is checked individually.

Configuration

Kernelstub has a robust configuration system with multiple fallbacks for safety. By default, a sample (non-functional) configuration file is provided in /etc/kernelstub/SAMPLE which demonstrates the available options and the JSON syntax. The main configuration file is stored in /etc/kernelstub/configuration, which is created by default if it doesn't exist. Kernelstub also has a copy of the default configuration stored internally, so that it can create a config file if none already exists.

When kernelstub is run with the -o, -l, -s, or -m options, this is recorded in the config file so that future automatic runs or runs without options will work correctly. Options specified on the command line always take precedence over options in the config files.

Your distribution or package maintainer may additionally create a configuration template in /etc/default/kernelstub. This should not be edited except by maintaners. Use the standard config file instead, as this will be loaded instead of the distributor file if it exists, and options will never be saved to the distributor file.

Return codes

If kernelstub is going to be used in a scripted environment, it is useful to know what return codes it provides in the event of errors. The table below details these codes and their meaning:

Licence

Kernelstub is available under an COLPL + ISC-based license. The full license is supplied in the LICENSE.txt file.

Copyright 2017-2018 Ian Santopietro isantop@gmail.com

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.