Bug#765803: Status of prompting / notification on upgrade for init system switch?

[Cameron Norman <camerontnorman@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 8:13 PM, Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:21:27PM -0400, Sam Hartman wrote:
>> >>>>> "Josh" == Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> writes:
>>
>>     Josh> - It can't check for generated lines for serial consoles or
>>     Josh> similar; finish-install can generate various additional
>>     Josh> inittab lines, which the check should include.
>>
>> Since when did systemd actually handle these correctly?
>> I've generally found that systemd will give me a serial console only if
>> the kernel console is that serial console.
>> I've found that if I manually enable a serial console but have the
>> kernel console  go somewhere else, I end up with a system I cannot log
>> into when I  upgrade to systemd.
>> This has been no end of frustration and I hope that your check correctly
>> prompts in this case even when  the line I generate is exactly the
>> same as a line generated by the installer.
>>
>> If it's gotten better and I'd actually get a console in that case,
>> that's of course fine too.
>> It should either let me know I'm about to hurt myself or work:-)
>> Either behavior is fine.
>
> TTBOMK, you'll automatically get a console on a serial port in a few
> cases:
>
> - If the kernel console points there (console=ttyS0); note that this
>   works even if you change that console.
>
> - If the console is identified as a default system console (works for
>   virtual machine serial ports, and for systems with unusually named
>   standard console serial ports).
>
> See systemd-getty-generator.
>
> In other cases, you have to manually "systemctl enable
> serial-getty@ttyX.service".
>
> I wonder if it might make sense to do a one-time migration that parses
> /etc/inittab, looks for serial console getty lines, and enables
> serial-getty@.service for any consoles it finds gettys for?

If you are going to the work of parsing it all, would it not make
sense to make a systemd generator out of it?

--
Cameron Norman