Re: Bug#417407: installing to a box with suspended system
On 31/10/2007, Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> wrote:
> On Wednesday 31 October 2007, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> > I tried to use the installer on a box which had a Linux system
> > suspended on one disk. As I noticed that os-prober mounts the
> > partitions I did not try to resume.
> > According to the software suspend documentation this could cause
> > serious data loss, especially since the filesystem loses consistency
> > while *mounted*.
>
> The installer will also in principle automatically reuse an existing swap
> partition during the installation...
> In my opinion this is a completely different issue than the subject of this
> report.
>
> I also think that trying to do an installation on a system that has an OS in
> suspended state is not very smart. _Any_ installation of an OS is
> inherently risky as you can never be sure exactly what changes it may make
> on disk. Compounding that risk by having operating systems suspended is
> something you should know to avoid as a user.
> We could add a warning about that in the installation guide, but I don't
> think there is much more that we can do than that. I would personally
> qualify any data loss resulting from that as being caused by "user error".
>
> Setting follow-up for this to the mailing list as this does not belong in
> this bug report.
>
>
Well, this is another problem that might be solved by the solution
suggested for that bug.
To paraphrase what you are saying, using Debian software on a system
is inherently risky, as you can never be sure what changes it does.
Compounding the risk by having operating systems suspended is
something you should avoid as a user.
Here the installer is no different from any other piece of software.
It should not do stuff behind your back. It is not one of those tools
for certain other OSes.
The installer should be designed to perform the task of copying Debian
to a place designated by the user in the system so that the user can
boot Debian using the method she chooses.
Modifying other places in the system is not part of this task.
Thanks
Michal
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