Re: GRUB 2.12~rc1 released

[Pete Batard]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the long awaited 2.12~rc1.

As I have mentioned in the past, and I feel need to mention again on 
account that it continues causes real-life grievances for downstream 
GRUB end users and especially people trying to install Linux, the formal 
GRUB 2.12 release cannot come soon enough, as the lack of timely GRUB 
releases combined with Linux distro maintainers taking it upon 
themselves to cherry pick post 2.06 commits, has recently been creating 
and continues to create major headaches for, among others, Ubuntu and 
Fedora users [1].

Thus, in part because of the above, I have been eager to test 2.12~rc1.

However, I'm afraid I have to report a potential build error, that can 
happen on a fully up to date Debian 11.7 system set up with the default 
packages, whereas compiling 2.06 with the same options on the same 
system works fine.

Basically, after extracting the tarball, if one uses:

./autogen.sh
./configure --disable-nls --enable-boot-time
make

to build GRUB, then the build might ultimately fails with:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(...)
mv syminfo.lst.new syminfo.lst
cat syminfo.lst | sort | mawk -f ./genmoddep.awk > moddep.lst || (rm -f 
moddep.lst; exit 1)
mawk: ./genmoddep.awk: line 106: function asorti never defined
make[3]: *** [Makefile:51274: moddep.lst] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/grub-2.12~rc1/grub-core'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:28853: all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/grub-2.12~rc1/grub-core'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:12127: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/grub-2.12~rc1'
make: *** [Makefile:3954: all] Error 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------

My investigation indicates that, this has to do with the default awk 
being provided by Debian 11.7 being 'mawk' rather than 'gawk':

----------------------------------------------------------------------
# awk -W version
mawk 1.3.4 20200120
Copyright 2008-2019,2020, Thomas E. Dickey
Copyright 1991-1996,2014, Michael D. Brennan
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, this issue can solved by installing gawk and reconfiguring, as the 
build then completes successfully, with 'awk -W version' reporting:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
# awk -W version
GNU Awk 5.1.0, API: 3.0 (GNU MPFR 4.1.0, GNU MP 6.2.1)
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991-2020 Free Software Foundation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

In other words, I am not sure how much GRUB 2.12 wants to be friendlier 
towards non gawk users, but, considering that the error I mentioned 
above can happen on a relatively recent Debian system, maybe a test for 
'asorti()' during configure or the use of an 'asorti()' equivalent, that 
will work for now gawk users, warrants being looked into.

Regards,

/Pete

[1] https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/issues/2243

On 2023.07.10 18:35, Daniel Kiper wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> The GRUB maintainers are proud to announce the GRUB 2.12~rc1 that has been just 
> released.
>
> We would like to thank all the people who have contributed to the project.
>
> The tarball is available at https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.tar.xz
> and its signature at https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.tar.xz.sig
>
> Release is signed with the following fingerprint:
>    BE5C 2320 9ACD DACE B20D  B0A2 8C81 89F1 988C 2166
>
> It's also available as a signed grub-2.12-rc1 tag in official git repository.
>
> If you do not have xz support alternatively you may consider file
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.tar.gz and its signature at
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.tar.gz.sig
>
> If you want a binary version for Windows (i386-pc, i386-efi and x86_64-efi
> flavors) it is available under 
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1-for-windows.zip
> and its signature at 
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1-for-windows.zip.sig
>
> Translators can use http://alpha.gnu.org/pub/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.pot for 
> translation.
> The pot signature is available at 
> http://alpha.gnu.org/pub/gnu/grub/grub-2.12~rc1.pot.sig
>
> Please test this release candidate. If we do not spot major issues we are going
> to release 2.12 in a month or so.
>
> In the meantime we will be looking mostly at the patches fixing tests and
> documentation posted on grub-devel up until now. If time allows we will also be
> looking at the patches which introduces new interesting features which should be
> merged after 2.12 official release.
>
> Daniel
>
>
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