Through implementation of clr-boot-manager from Clear Linux

Mar 27, 2017 03:00 GMT  ·  By

Solus Project, through Joshua Strobl, proudly announced the implementation of Clear Linux's clr-boot-manager Linux kernel and bootloader management tool into the stable repositories of the Solus operating system.

If memory recalls, the Solus developers led by Ikey Doherty have been working on this implementation for the last few months, but it's finally here, and all Solus users will get the clr-boot-manager utility the next time they update their installations. clr-boot-manager promises bulletproof boot management and update experience.

According to the project's GitHub page, clr-boot-manager was created to handle the maintenance of vendor kernels, as well as of garbage collection during upgrades. It also promises to enable the co-existence of a shared boot directory, in particular for modern UEFI machines using an EFI system partition.

"clr-boot-manager also addresses the issue of modules of the currently running kernel being removed from the disk during an update. The Linux kernel loads modules at runtime from uniquely namespaced trees, as each tree is specific for each kernel," said Joshua Strobl, Solus Project Communications Manager.

The linux-lts package now used by default for all Solus users

Not only that the integration of clr-boot-manager in Solus will make sure you won't have problems with USB devices not functioning after a kernel update, but it also lets power users use custom command-line arguments like "i8042.nomux=1" or "resume=/dev/somePartition".

As part of this implementation, to provide users with a more bulletproof update experience, it would appear that all Solus users have been switched to use the linux-lts kernel, which will be installed along with clr-boot-manager if you update your systems right now and reboot the machines.

With that in mind, it looks like the Solus devs are preparing to offer users a linux-mainline package as well if they want to use the newest available and most advanced kernel to date on their Solus computers, but if you don't install it you'll remain on the linux-lts one, which is usually based on the latest LTS kernel available.