GRUB2 Working On TPM2 Automatic Disk Unlock, TrenchBoot & More

Daniel Kiper with Oracle has provided a status update on current GRUB bootloader development activities, a look ahead, and plans for hopefully having out the next release in November.

Kiper was at FOSDEM 2024 this weekend in Brussels to once again offer a status update around GRUB. It was back in December that GRUB 2.12 released, two and a half years after the prior GRUB 2.06 version. But with the plans shared for GRUB in 2024, the hope is to get 2.12's successor out this November. To get back on that annual GRUB release cadence, the code freeze ahead of the next release is expected to happen around October.

Some of the current and upcoming feature work for GRUB includes NX support for EFI platforms, TrenchBoot support for Intel and AMD platforms, automatic disk unlocking using TPM2 modules, upstreaming more patches various various downstreams (such as Fedora carrying hundreds of downstream patches), continuous integration (CI) infrastructure setup, and bug fixes and documentation improvements.

Those wanting to learn more about the GRUB bootloader activity in 2024 can find Daniel Kiper's presentation via FOSDEM.org.