All Jupiter Broadcasting Shows Boots and Breakups | LINUX Unplugged 660
Mar 29, 2026
Discussion about Ubuntu 26.10 stripping down GRUB and what that means for Secure Boot and boot layouts. Debate over removing support for encrypted and complex /boot setups like LUKS, LVM, RAID and Btrfs. Practical alternative boot strategies such as systemd-boot, UKIs, and self-signed kernels. Coverage of ErsatzTV ending and migration options like Tunarr and Dispatcharr for self-hosted IPTV.
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Ubuntu's Minimal GRUB For Secure Boot
- Ubuntu plans a "minimal GRUB" for 26.10 to reduce attack surface for Secure Boot by removing many filesystem and feature handlers from signed GRUB builds.
- They will retain EXT4, FAT, ISO9660, SquashFS and remove Btrfs, HFS+, XFS, ZFS, JPEG/PNG image support, and complex /boot setups like LUKS, LVM, MDRAID (except RAID1).
BootHole Showed Bootchain Updates Are Painful
- The painful BootHole response in 2020 motivated stricter GRUB signing because coordinating shim/GRUB firmware updates across vendors is slow and error-prone.
- Wes explains replacing signed components requires re-signing shim, coordinating with Microsoft, and blacklisting old keys on hardware, which is costly at scale.
Use Unsigned GRUB Or Self Sign If You Rely On Exotic Boots
- If you need non-supported /boot features under Secure Boot, use unsigned GRUB builds or sign and manage your own boot components instead of relying on Ubuntu's signed GRUB.
- Ubuntu's change affects only signed GRUB builds; unsigned builds keep full feature support, so consider self-signing or alternative boot mechanisms.