Bootloader

1. If using virtio disk, add driver to initrd:

   echo 'filesystems+=" virtio_blk "' >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/fs.conf
   

2. Create empty cache file and generate initrd:

   rm -f /etc/zfs/zpool.cache
   touch /etc/zfs/zpool.cache
   chmod a-w /etc/zfs/zpool.cache
   chattr +i /etc/zfs/zpool.cache
   
   for directory in /lib/modules/*; do
     kernel_version=$(basename $directory)
     dracut --force --kver $kernel_version
   done
   

3. Load ZFS modules and disable BLS:

   echo 'GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=false' >> /etc/default/grub
   

4. Apply GRUB workaround:

   echo 'export ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=YES' >> /etc/profile.d/zpool_vdev_name_path.sh
   source /etc/profile.d/zpool_vdev_name_path.sh
   
   # GRUB fails to detect rpool name, hard code as "rpool"
   sed -i "s|rpool=.*|rpool=rpool|"  /etc/grub.d/10_linux
   

   This workaround needs to be applied for every GRUB update, as the update will overwrite the changes.

5. Install GRUB:

   export ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=YES
   mkdir -p /boot/efi/almalinux/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/
   mkdir -p /boot/efi/almalinux/grub-bootdir/x86_64-efi/
   for i in ${DISK}; do
    grub2-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory \
        /boot/efi/almalinux/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/  $i
   done
   
   cp -r /usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi/ /boot/efi/EFI/almalinux/
   

6. Generate GRUB menu:

   grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/almalinux/grub.cfg
   grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/almalinux/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/grub2/grub.cfg
   

7. For both legacy and EFI booting: mirror ESP content:

   ESP_MIRROR=$(mktemp -d)
   unalias -a
   cp -r /boot/efi/EFI $ESP_MIRROR
   for i in /boot/efis/*; do
    cp -r $ESP_MIRROR/EFI $i
   done
   rm -rf $ESP_MIRROR
   

8. Notes for GRUB on RHEL

   As bls is disabled, you will need to regenerate GRUB menu after each kernel upgrade. Or else the new kernel will not be recognized and system will boot the old kernel on reboot.

Finish Installation

1. Exit chroot:

   exit
   

2. Export pools:

   umount -Rl /mnt
   zpool export -a
   

3. Reboot:

   reboot
   

4. On first reboot, the boot process will fail, with failure messages such as “You are in Emergency Mode…Press Ctrl-D to continue”.

   Wait for the computer to automatically reboot and the problem will be resolved.

Post installaion

1. Install package groups:

   dnf group list --hidden -v       # query package groups
   dnf group install @gnome-desktop
   

2. Add new user, configure swap.