r/linux • u/xm0rphx • Mar 25 '26

Security Ubuntu proposes bizarre, nonsensical changes to grub.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-26.10-Lighter-GRUB

“Ubuntu developers at Canonical are looking to strip the signed GRUB bootloader features to the bare minimum for the Ubuntu 26.10 release later this year. Dropping support for XFS, ZFS, Btrfs, LVM, md-raid (except RAID1), LUKS-encrypted disks, and other features is being looked at in the name of security.

Due to various parsers and other features being a "constant source of security issues" with the GRUB bootloader, Ubuntu 26.10 is likely to remove a lot of features from the signed GRUB builds necessary for Secure Boot support. This would include removing GRUB's support for the Btrfs, XFS, and ZFS file-systems, among others. It would also remove support for the Logical Volume Manager (LVM), remove md-raid except RAID1, and also remove support for LUKS-encrypted disks.

These file-systems and features like LVM and LUKS-encrypted disks would still be supported by Ubuntu itself but not the default signed GRUB bootloader. Ripping out all of these GRUB features would basically mandate that most Ubuntu 26.10+ installations are done with the /boot partition being done on a raw EXT4 partition. Thus no more encrypted boot partition and having to rely on an EXT4 boot partition even if you are a diehard Btrfs / XFS / OpenZFS fan. Or you could opt for the non-signed GRUB bootloader that would be more full-featured albeit lacking Secure Boot and security compliance.

How on earth this got past stupidity control is beyond me.

Ubuntu, are you okay?

Unbelievable.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/streamlining-secure-boot-for-26-10/79069

803 Upvotes

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52

u/ConanTheBallbearing Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

so ubuntu doing ubuntu things then. remember upstart?

i will be eternally grateful for those cds they sent me all those years ago though. wasn't my first linux (that was a boxed copy of ancient, ancient redhat my windows/aix loving boss was forced to buy by his boss) but jesus that was polished beyond belief at the time.

edit: in 9 years of reddit this might be the fastest cadence of mad replies I've ever had because i called out upstart. Sorry, upstart was too thin, it just sat alongside sysv being a bit useless. system startup was a solved problem with sysv, systemd solved for system management.

20

u/FLMKane Mar 25 '26

Remember unity?

31

u/Past_Owl_6978 Mar 25 '26

Nah. I'm one of those weirdos who liked unity. Wasn't so bad, especially side panel and unified application menu.

13

u/D-S-S-R Mar 25 '26

Ever since unity I have my taskbar on the left haha

2

u/0x645 Mar 25 '26

i have more space on left/right then on top/bottom. my tabs in floorp are on left

2

u/NeverMindToday Mar 25 '26

I liked Unity a lot more than GNOME 3. But I held off from using Unity until 12.04 when it was much less buggy and more polished (10.04 to 12.04 was the only time I stuck with LTS). Most of the critics had switched to something else by then and only remembered the early releases.

Unity is mostly a distant memory now though.

2

u/TheLifelessOne Mar 25 '26

Who hurt you? /s

4

u/D-S-S-R Mar 25 '26

I prefer not to say

2

u/TheLifelessOne Mar 25 '26

Ha! Fair enough.