aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/docs/grub/grubeditor.md
blob: 6a6e8c5f2a89470e28f50ede99017f39f691f08a (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
GRUB EDITOR
===========

Libreboot ROM images now support fluid _grub.cfg_ and _grubtest.cfg_
configuration editing with the grubeditor.sh script! Instead of manually running
cbfstool to manipulate these configuration files, this script will handle the
work for you so you can focus on actually modifying your GRUB configuration
files to your setup's needs.

At the time of this writing, grubeditor.sh supports extracting and editing
either the grub.cfg or grubtest.cfg file in any cbfstool-compatible Libreboot
ROM image that contains these files, even ones that have been previously
modified. It can also swap these configuration files in an existing ROM image,
handy if you have a working grubtest.cfg and want to make it the default or if
you broke the main grub.cfg and know that your grubtest.cfg still works. Lastly,
it can also run diff on these two configuration files to show you how they
differ.

Introduction
============

grubeditor.sh takes a number of options, the only one which is required being a
valid Libreboot ROM image that uses the GRUB2 payload and contains both
_grub.cfg_ and _grubtest.cfg_ files. Additional options should come _before_ the
ROM image file on the command line.

You can call the script the **-h** or **--help** option to view a brief summary
of the options available. Consider this guide a more extensive version of this
screen.

grubeditor.sh supports extended getopt, which means that all options have both a
short and a long form which respectively begin with a single hyphen and a double
hyphen. You can group together several short options with a single hyphen like
**-ris** (or not, like **-r -i -s**). Long options should be written as
standalone arguments.
 
Lastly, you can check which version of grubeditor.sh you are using with the
**-v** or **--version** option.

Requirements
============

grubeditor.sh requires an x86, x86_64, or armv7l environment, since these are
the environments for which cbfstools binaries are provided. Additionally,
grubeditor.sh needs a Bash environment with extended getopt functionality that
can run the **diff** command and write to /tmp. Lastly, the script expects to
live in the top directory of the Libreboot utilities package so it can properly
call cbfstool.

Chances are that you already meet these requirements if you are on a Linux
environment of the listed architectures and downloaded the Libreboot utilities
package from an official source. If not, it shouldn't be too hard to use a
Linux LiveCD of your choice which provides these essentials.

Optionally, you should make sure your EDITOR variable is set. Otherwise,
grubeditor.sh will default to using vi, which may not exist on your system. You
can override this default or the contents of your EDITOR variable using the
**-e** or **--editor** command.

Editing configuration files
===========================

Invoked without any arguments except for the ROM image, grubeditor.sh will
attempt to extract the _grubtest.cfg_ file from the provided ROM image and
launch it in your editor of choice. If you make changes to the file,
grubeditor.sh will incorporate your changes into a new ROM image with the same
name in the same directory, except that the new ROM file will end with
".modified". You can then flash this ROM image to your platform's BIOS chip.

If you would prefer to edit the actual _grub.cfg_ configuration file, use the
**-r** or the **--realcfg** option. Everything else will work the same except
that your editor will open the _grub.cfg_ instead.

If you would prefer to overwrite your existing ROM image instead of creating a
new one ending in ".modified" use the **-i** or **--inplace** option.
Naturally, you can combine this option with the **-r/--realcfg** option
described above.

Swapping and diffing grub.cfg and grubtest.cfg
==============================================

grubeditor.sh supports swapping the _grub.cfg_ and _grubtest.cfg_ configuration
files with the **-s** or **--swap** options. This will create a new ROM image
alongside the existing ROM image ending with ".modified" which has these files
swapped. Naturally, you can request this operation overwrite the existing file
instead using the **-i/--inplace** option.

Lastly, grubeditor.sh supports comparing _grub.cfg_ and _grubtest.cfg_ files for
differences with the **-d** or **--diffcfg** option. This uses the diff command
by default, but if you want to use another program (e.g. vimdiff), you can
specify it with the **-D** or **--differ** option. Note that this mode is only
intended to show differences in the files and does not support updating the
configs themselves, so any changes you make in an interactive differ will be
ignored.

Conclusion
==========

I hope that grubeditor.sh will significantly ease modifying your configuration
files in your Libreboot ROM files.

Should you find any bugs or want any feature requests, please don't hesitate to
email me or bug me on IRC.