Bug#806270: os-prober: should allow to select which block devices to scan and not scan any per default
Package: os-prober
Severity: wishlist
Hey.
Given that there are quite a number of bugs open where os-proper
apparently caused critical data loss and destroyed filesystems it
seems to me that it's modus operandi of scanny all block devices
is generally inapparopriate and far to risky.
Not sure what os-prober does worse than other tools which also
scan all devices, but apparently it does something which actually
may cause changes to these devices; probably mounting, which, even
if read-only, isn't guaranteed to not change a device; OTOH #788062
reports further corruptions, while AFAIU, grub-mount seems to be
used already (see #701814 comment #81).
I think a good solution, which would IMHO even improve the package
if it wouldn't have these corruption issues was to implement the
following:
- allow, via some config file, to configure which block devices are
scanned
- per default, do not scan any!
- perhaps add a debconf dialog which allows the user to select which
other devices should be added to the config file,... simiarly to
what grub-pc does when it asks for the devices where it should be
installed.
I think this has several advantages over the current mode:
- The user controls which devices are scanned, which should help to
rule out corruption cases a bit more.
- No need to scan all kinds of devices, which, if there are many,
can take quite a while, spin up unused disks/CDs, etc.
- The user can control which other OS are added,.. right now, AFAIU,
everything found is added, but that may not be what one wants.
Since /dev/disk/by-uuid and friends can be used in the config file,
the whole thing is even deterministic.
Cheers,
Chris.
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