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8.8. Configurare il bootloader

È probabilmente già funzionante ma è sempre meglio sapere come configurare ed installare il bootloader nel caso scompaia dal Master Boot Record. Questo può avvenire dopo l'installazione di un altro sistema operativo, per esempio Windows. Le seguenti informazioni possono anche aiutare a modificare la configurazione del bootloader se necessario.

8.8.1. Identificare i dischi

La configurazione del bootloader deve identificare i diversi dischi rigidi e le rispettive partizioni. Linux usa speciali file "a blocchi" conservati nella directory /dev/, per questo scopo. Sin da Debian Squeeze, lo schema dei nomi degli dischi è stato unificato con il kernel Linux, e tutti i dischi rigidi (IDE/PATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, IEEE 1394) sono ora rappresentati da /dev/sd*.
Ogni partizione è rappresentata dal suo numero sul disco che la ospita: per esempio /dev/sda1 è la prima partizione nel primo disco e /dev/sdb3 è la terza partizione nel secondo disco.
L'architettura PC (o "i386", compreso il cugino più giovane "amd64") è stata a lungo limitata dall'uso della tabella delle partizioni "MS-DOS", che permetteva solo quattro partizioni "primarie" per disco. Per superare la limitazione di questo schema, una di esse deve essere creata come partizione "estesa", e può così contenere partizione "secondarie" aggiuntive. Queste partizioni secondarie sono numerate a partire da 5. Così la prima partizione secondaria potrebbe essere /dev/sda5, seguita da /dev/sda6, etc.
Un'altra limitazione del formato della tabella di partizione MS-DOS è che permette solo dischi fino a 2Tb di dimensione, che sta diventando un vero problema con i dischi più recenti.
A new partition table format called GPT (GUID Partition Table) loosens these constraints on the number of partitions (it allows up to 128 partitions when using standard settings) and on the size of the disks (up to 8 ZiB, which is more than 8 billion terabytes). If you intend to create many physical partitions on the same disk, you should therefore ensure that you are creating the partition table in the GPT format when partitioning your disk.
It is not always easy to remember what disk is connected to which SATA controller, or in third position in the SCSI chain, especially since the naming of hotplugged hard drives (which includes among others most SATA disks and external disks) can change from one boot to another. Fortunately, udev creates, in addition to /dev/sd*, symbolic links with a fixed name, which you could then use if you wished to identify a hard drive in a non-ambiguous manner. These symbolic links are stored in /dev/disk/by-id/. On a machine with two physical disks, for example, one could find the following:
mirexpress:/dev/disk/by-id# ls -l
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 08:58 ata-STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 ata-STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 ata-STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP-part2 -> ../../sda2
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 08:58 ata-WDC_WD5001AALS-00L3B2_WD-WCAT00241697 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 ata-WDC_WD5001AALS-00L3B2_WD-WCAT00241697-part1 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 ata-WDC_WD5001AALS-00L3B2_WD-WCAT00241697-part2 -> ../../sdb2
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_STM3500418AS_9VM3L3KP-part2 -> ../../sda2
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5001AALS-_WD-WCAT00241697 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5001AALS-_WD-WCAT00241697-part1 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5001AALS-_WD-WCAT00241697-part2 -> ../../sdb2
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 16:48 usb-LaCie_iamaKey_3ed00e26ccc11a-0:0 -> ../../sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 16:48 usb-LaCie_iamaKey_3ed00e26ccc11a-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 16:48 usb-LaCie_iamaKey_3ed00e26ccc11a-0:0-part2 -> ../../sdc2
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 23 jul. 08:58 wwn-0x5000c50015c4842f -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 23 jul. 08:58 wwn-0x5000c50015c4842f-part1 -> ../../sda1
[...]
mirexpress:/dev/disk/by-id# 
Note that some disks are listed several times (because they behave simultaneously as ATA disks and SCSI disks), but the relevant information is mainly in the model and serial numbers of the disks, from which you can find the peripheral file. While the links in /dev/disk/by-id/ are created using the device' serial number and physical path, there are more convenience links in e.g. /dev/disk/by-label/ (based on given labels), /dev/disk/by-uuid/ (based on unique identifiers, which can change when reformatting a device using mkfs.* or mkswap), /dev/disk/by-path/ (based on shortest physical path), and /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ and /dev/disk/by-partuuid/ (only partitions with GPT labels and their unique identifiers). If you use these links, e.g. in /etc/fstab, always prefer unique identifiers over labels. You can also obtain and change this information for each partition or device using the lsblk and blkid commands.
I file di configurazione d'esempio che si trovano nelle sezioni seguenti sono basati sulla stessa configurazione: un singolo disco SATA, dove la prima partizione è una vecchia installazione Windows e la seconda contiene Debian GNU/Linux.

8.8.2. Configurazione di GRUB 2

GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) is more recent. It is not necessary to invoke it after each update of the kernel; GRUB knows how to read the filesystems and find the position of the kernel on the disk by itself. To install it on the MBR of the first disk, simply type grub-install /dev/sda. This will overwrite the MBR, so be careful not to overwrite the wrong location. While it is also possible to install GRUB into a partition boot record, beware that it is usually a mistake and doing grub-install /dev/sda1 has not the same meaning as grub-install /dev/sda.
GRUB 2 configuration is stored in /boot/grub/grub.cfg, but this file (in Debian) is generated from others. Be careful not to modify it by hand, since such local modifications will be lost the next time update-grub is run (which may occur upon update of various packages). The most common modifications of the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file (to add command line parameters to the kernel or change the duration that the menu is displayed, for example) are made through the variables in /etc/default/grub. To add entries to the menu, you can either create a /boot/grub/custom.cfg file or modify the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file. For more complex configurations, you can modify other files in /etc/grub.d, or add to them; these scripts should return configuration snippets, possibly by making use of external programs. These scripts are the ones that will update the list of kernels to boot: 10_linux takes into consideration the installed Linux kernels; 20_linux_xen takes into account Xen virtual systems, and 30_os-prober adds other existing operating systems (Windows, OS X, Hurd), kernel images, and BIOS/EFI access options to the menu.

8.8.3. Using GRUB with EFI and Secure Boot

Using GRUB to boot either a traditional BIOS system (legacy or UEFI-CSM) or a UEFI system is quite different. Fortunately the user doesn't need to know the differences because Debian provides different packages for each purpose and the installer automatically cares about which one(s) to choose. The grub-pc package is chosen for legacy systems, where GRUB is installed into the MBR, while UEFI systems require grub-efi-arch, where GRUB is installed into the EFI System Partition (ESP). The latter requires a GTP partition table as well as an EFI partition.
To switch an existing system (supporting UEFI) from legacy to UEFI boot mode not only requires to switch the GRUB packages on the system, but also to adjust the partition table and the to create an EFI partition (probably including resizing existing partitions to create the necessary free space). It is therefore quite an elaborate process and we cannot cover it here. Fortunately, there are some manuals by bloggers describing the necessary procedures.
If you are using a system with “Secure Boot“ enabled and have installed shim-signed (see sidebar CULTURA Secure Boot e shim bootloader), you must also install grub-efi-arch-signed. This package is not pulled in automatically, only if the installation of recommended package has been enabled.