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https://github.com/mendhak/grub-reboot-picker

Helps with dual booting. Ubuntu tray application to reboot into different OSes or UEFI/BIOS
https://github.com/mendhak/grub-reboot-picker

appindicator dual-boot grub-reboot grub2 gtk3 tray-application ubuntu ubuntu2004

Last synced: 8 months ago
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Helps with dual booting. Ubuntu tray application to reboot into different OSes or UEFI/BIOS

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

          
# Grub Reboot Picker  [![CI](https://github.com/mendhak/grub-reboot-picker/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/mendhak/grub-reboot-picker/actions)



This utility is an app indicator (tray icon) to help you reboot into other OSes, or UEFI/BIOS, or the same OS.  

Instead of picking the OS you want during reboot at the grub menu, you can just preselect it from the menu here.  

Basically it's a wrapper around `grub-reboot`. 



![screenshot](assets/screenshot.png) 



## Install it



You can apt install it [from the PPA](https://launchpad.net/~mendhak/+archive/ubuntu/ppa).



```

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mendhak/ppa

sudo apt update

sudo apt install grub-reboot-picker

```



You can also download the .deb file from the Releases page and install it.



```

sudo apt install ./grub-reboot-picker_0.0.10+noble_all.deb 

```



## Run it



The application will auto start the next time you log in to Ubuntu.  

You can also launch it directly by searching for `Grub Reboot Picker` in Activities



## Use it



Click on the application icon.   

A menu with grub entries will appear.  

Click one of the entries.  

After a moment, Ubuntu will reboot.  

The grub menu item you chose should be preselected. 



## TODO



Configuration file or Configuration screen: 

* Top level or double level menu items

* Nicknames for menu items  



StartupNotify = true might be causing 'wait' cursor to appear



Run a single instance of the application



## Running it locally from this repo



You can run this application directly from this git repo.  



First get the dependencies



```

sudo apt install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1

```



Clone this repo, then run the python script. 



```

cd grub-reboot-picker

sudo ./grub-reboot-picker.py

```



You'll get prompted because the script wants to run `grub-mkconfig` which generates the grub config output. 

Alternatively run the script with sudo so that you don't get prompted.  



### Running it with molly-guard



molly-guard is a package that prompts you before reboot/shutdown, preventing accidental reboots. 

This script will run the .no-molly-guard version of reboot/shutdown to bypass molly-guard.  



To test it locally, need to install molly-guard then add two environment variables to /etc/environment. 



```

sudo apt install molly-guard

echo "ALWAYS_QUERY_HOSTNAME=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

echo "PRETEND_SSH=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

```



Then run the script as before



```

cd grub-reboot-picker

sudo ./grub-reboot-picker.py

```



## Building a distributable



This project uses pybuild to create a .deb file. The pyproject.toml file holds the information needed to do the build, and there are additional configuration files in debian folder such as control, links, install, changelog. All of these get used by pybuild to create the .deb.  



The `debian` directory contains the files needed to build the .deb, but the .deb appears in the parent directory for some reason. It's messy which is why I prefer the Docker way. 



### Build using Docker



```

# Set the version and suite (noble, jammy, etc)

nano version.sh

# Update the changelog, carefully

nano CHANGELOG.md



# Read the version

source version.sh



# Build the image which will build the deb

docker build --build-arg version=$version --build-arg suite=$suite --progress=plain -t docker-deb-builder .

# Alternately: docker buildx bake deb-builder



# Now grab the deb and dsc files

mkdir -p output

cd output

docker create --name docker-deb-builder docker-deb-builder

docker cp docker-deb-builder:/build/grub-reboot-picker_${version}.dsc ./

docker cp docker-deb-builder:/build/grub-reboot-picker_${version}.tar.xz ./

docker cp docker-deb-builder:/build/grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb ./

docker rm docker-deb-builder

ls -lah 

```



### Build on a local machine



First, some build dependencies:



```

sudo apt install dpkg-dev fakeroot debhelper python3-all dh-python lintian devscripts python3-hatchling pybuild-plugin-pyproject build-essential

```



Then to build:



```

# Set the version and suite (noble, jammy, etc)

nano version.sh

# Update the changelog, carefully

nano CHANGELOG.md

# Read the version

source version.sh

# Clean everything

git clean -fdx



# Generate and test changelog

python3 other/generate_changelog.py

dpkg-parsechangelog -l debian/changelog



# Build the package

dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us



# Grab the deb and dsc files

mkdir -p output; mv ../grub-reboot-picker_${version}* output/



```



## Inspecting the deb



Either way, once the .deb is built, it's good to inspect it.  



```

cd output



# Run a lint against this deb, check for errors

lintian grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb



# Look at information about this deb

dpkg -I grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb



# List all the files in the deb

dpkg -c grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb



# Extract contents to a dir

dpkg-deb -R grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb extracted/



# View changelog

zless extracted/usr/share/doc/grub-reboot-picker/changelog.gz

rm -rf extracted/



# View its dependencies

dpkg-deb -f grub-reboot-picker_${version}_all.deb Depends

```



## Uploading to Launchpad



After building, to upload to launchpad, I have to extract the sources, then GPG sign, then use dput to push up.  

Then wait for launchpad to build the code, which can take up to an hour. 



```

cd output

# Extract the source into a subdirectory

dpkg-source -x grub-reboot-picker_${version}.dsc

cd grub-reboot-picker-${version}/

# Build a debian package and GPG sign it - it uses the key id from the changelog

debuild -S -sa

# Also possible to specify the key id: debuild -S -sa -k6989CF77490369CFFDCBCD8995E7D75C76CBE9A9

# Upload to launchpad

dput ppa:mendhak/ppa ../grub-reboot-picker_${version}_source.changes

```



## Application structure



There's a lot happening in a .deb file.  For my own benefit, here are the files it creates, and their purpose. 



![diagram](assets/diagram.drawio.svg)



### .desktop file



The `com.mendhak.grubrebootpicker.desktop` file goes in two places. 



`/etc/xdg/autostart/` -  ensures that the app is launched when the user logs in  

`/usr/share/applications/` - ensures that the app can be found when searching through Activities. 



### .policy file



The `com.mendhak.grubrebootpicker.policy` is a [polkit policy file](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Polkit) goes in `/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/`.  

This in turn allows the application to run `pkexec reboot` without a password prompt.  



### The script



As part of the build the `.py` extension is removed.  During install, the executable, extensionless Python script is put in `/usr/sbin` so that it's on the user's $PATH.