Did debian just remove multi-init support from the latest shipped grub?

[prowler_gr at yahoo.gr]

Yes this is correct, the patch was removed for version 2.12~rc1-3 in 2023 but I couldn't see justification (eg closes bug xxx), either on git or through the changelog
It should be understood that MX (one of the most known Debian derivatives) has been using this feature for almost a decade to ship with sysvinit & systemd on the same image, and antiX is planning to offer alternate in a similar manner (which I contribute to).

Would there be a specific reason this feature may have been dropped?

Posting a link to the commit in plain text for those that couldn't read my previous post:

https://salsa.debian.org/grub-team/grub/-/commit/bdc71248132521f3d0fb506e84b478be349fbcae#57fc750524807a0da244e17a3a27a57bf55ba59d






Στις Τετάρτη 18 Ιουνίου 2025 στις 09:11:33 μ.μ. GMT+10, ο χρήστης The Wanderer <wanderer at fastmail.fm> έγραψε: 





On 2025-06-18 at 03:07, prowler_gr at yahoo.gr wrote:


> Drop mkconfig-other-inits.patch (alternative init boot options)
> (bdc71248) · Commits · Debian GRUB Maintainers / grub · GitLab


I have no idea what's going on in the git backend(s?), but I see that
commit message in changelog.Debian.gz for my installed version of
grub-common... as having been included in version 2.12~rc1-3... with a
changelog date of 2023-07-25.

So while it's certainly possible that there's been another commit made
with this same commit message, and that that commit might do some
more-problematic things, at a glance I wouldn't expect that this is
something that has "just" been done; it looks like something that was
done nearly two years ago.

Also, from the wording I see in the changelog (both there and in nearby
entries that also mention 'init') I'd guess that this involves whether
or not grub prompts (by default?) about which init system you want to
booth with, not about whether or not grub can be used to boot
alternative init systems. I could be mistaken about that, but it would
seem like a plausible interpretation.

-- 
  The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.        -- George Bernard Shaw


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