[Bug 1763738] Re: add NTFS module to GRUB EFI bootloader for installation ISO images

[Brian Murray]

** Package changed: ubuntu => grub-installer (Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1763738

Title:
  add NTFS module to GRUB EFI bootloader for installation ISO images

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The GRUB EFI bootloader that is used by the current Ubuntu ISOs only
  appears to include support for the FAT/FAT32 and ISO9660 file systems.

  This creates issues for people who create USB bootable media from the
  ISO and plan to add persistence onto it, as they are only able to do
  so using FAT32 as the file system, which limits the persistent
  partition size to 4GB (due to this filesystem's limitations).

  Considering that many motherboards manufacturers are adding NTFS boot
  support to their UEFI firmware (for instance all intel NUC models
  include it, as well as many boards from Gigabyte and other vendors),
  and that, even if the UEFI firmware does not support native NTFS boot,
  it is also easy to add that functionality (for instance Rufus, the
  Ubuntu-recommended bootable USB media creation tool on Windows has
  such a feature), not having NTFS support in the GRUB EFI bootloader
  included with the Ubuntu ISOs is becoming problematic for Ubuntu
  users.

  Evidence of this can be demonstrated with
  https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/issues/1108 and I also was able to
  replicate the issue when testing ubuntu-18.04-beta2-desktop-amd64.iso.

  The NTFS GRUB module is a few KB in size, and should only require
  adding 'ntfs' during 'grub-mkimage' invocation, along with the 'fat'
  option that should already be present. Therefore, we don't believe it
  should be that problematic to do, and it would be great help for
  Ubuntu users wanting to use persistence on USB media. For good
  measure, you may also want to consider adding the 'exfat' module.

  Thanks,

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