heyall! I've been working on a large bootloader subsystem rewrite to get everything working together nicer and support future bootloaders better. however, extlinux is being a bit of an issue.
extlinux installs its second stage (ldlinux.sys) by copying it into the root (or boot) filesystem, and then copying the on-disk block offset into the bootblock first-stage. this relies on the now-heavily discouraged practice of assuming files just stay in the same physical spot. it requires special treatment with btrfs, will break if anything rearranges the file-system, and will most likely never work on disk images. it hasn't been updated since 2014 and kinda shows. a possible solution would be re-implementing its installer and instead installing ldlinux.sys to a separate partition, or maybe see if it could re-use GRUB's method of installing in the partition gap or even editing the disk image installer to work in an losetup'd container or some shit. but, honestly, I don't know if that would actually help anyone. does anyone use extlinux on guix still? would anyone mind if I just nix it (guix it?) entirely in the patch series? grub supports every case extlinux would support anyway. thanks! leila
