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Re: [RFC]: Install rescue-initramfs dialog



On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> wrote:
> On Sunday 17 August 2008, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
>> * Per Andersson <avtobiff@gmail.com> [2008-08-17 14:39]:
>> > Most users of headless devices would probobly want it.
>> >
>> > So I'll create an udeb for rescue-initramfs which installs it
>> > during d-i and then put rescue-initramfs-udeb in
>> > installer/build/pkg-lists/network-console. Is that a good
>> > solution?!
>>
>> Alternatively, you could put the code into packages/network-console.
>
> network-console is *not* only used for headless devices so I'm not in
> favor of linking these two.

Yeah, I remember that we discussed this on IRC and I
agree with you.


> I have no idea if a udeb for rescue-initramfs is needed. If all it would
> do is install the regular package then a separate udeb would be serious
> overkill.

It is indeed.


> What is needed here is a proper analysis of when exactly rescue-initramfs
> is wanted and at what stage of the installation it should be installed
> (pkgsel or finish-install I would say). The first question should provide
> an answer to how its installation should be triggered.

I took a brief look at pkgsel yesterday. I'll probably roll with
that.

Concerning use cases, when it is usable and should be
installed, I see at least two use cases:
- NAS devices, which I have been working with this summer.
  Even simple things like kernel upgrade or automatic fsck
  of filesystems could render the box unbootable if you don't
  have a serial console. Add encrypted root filesystem and
  you have to have some way to interact during the boot
  process.
- Headless servers, for, probably, the same reasons
  mentioned above.

At first I thought of adding something similar to
pkgsel/pre-pkgsel.d/10laptop-detect for NAS devices that
d-i support. But maybe it would be a good thing to have
a dialog asking the user about installing rescue-initramfs
if encrypted root filesystem is selected.


-- Per


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