Bug#768657: [Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#768657: sysvinit: Please provide xen virtual console in inittab

[Gedalya <gedalya@gedalya.net>]

On 12/03/2014 05:12 PM, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> I'm not sure to understand what the original bug report is about
> precisely.  AIUI, it is about the following scenario:
>
> 1) install debian in a Xen domU, ending up with systemd installed by
> default
> 2) install sysvinit-core to switch back to sysvinit boot
> 3) end up having to fix this and that to get sysvinit work properly
"this and that" being very specifically one line added to inittab:
co:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty hvc0 9600 linux
Given the above scenario this needs to be done by hand.
As I understand the code, currently d-i would still add that for the 
user, if /etc/inittab existed, and it doesn't because sysvinit-core is 
not installed.
I'm not aware of any other issue.

> I am not very surprised that it does not work.  The various tuning that
> d-i does usually only work on what gets installed during d-i, not on
> what gets installed later on.  That's particularly the case for software
> which doesn't provide nice hooks for d-i to use them.
>
> I'm just wondering one thing: between steps 1) and 2), does the
> installed system (using systemd) properly have a login banner on hvc0?
It does. The problem occurs only after installing sysvinit-core. If the 
user really depends on a console then they would need to add this line 
before rebooting, and we can expect that they might not know to do so.

> If not, then it's indeed a problem, but not related with sysvinit
> and inittab. In the current logic, some more code should be added to
> finish-install's 90console script to handle the systemd case.  I don't
> have a Xen system offhand to easily test that.
>
> Cyril Brulebois, le Mon 10 Nov 2014 20:51:28 +0100, a écrit :
> > Would it make any sense to have $something created by d-i, consumed by
> > both systemd and sysvinit to make sure consoles are available?
> It would make sense, but I'm not sure we can manage to write something
> that both sysvinit and systemd can understand easily. "include" support
> could be added to sysvinit, and /etc/inittab made to include the
> d-i-generate bits, but it'd still be in inittab format, which AIUI
> systemd wouldn't grok. So it would be something else, but then we would
> have to make sysvinit aware of what a serial login is, which it has
> never been made to, for flexibility reasons.
>
> > Of course if I'm conflating issues that are orthogonal, please say so
> > and we'll track both issues separately.
> I actually haven't quoted the vt2-6 issue here because I don't think it
> is related with d-i.
>
> Samuel