Should I report a failure to boot?
Dear Quality Assurance Team,
if my Debian system fails to boot, should I report this as a bug? If
so, against which package should I file the bug and which severity would
be appropriate?
As the kernel is unable to find its root device
due to the fact that device names change in a semi-random manner, I
filed a bug against the kernel, but it was summarily dismissed on the
grounds that the kernel does not guarantee persistent device names. I
am willing to accept that this is true, but I do think an attempt
should have been made to find out why it happens in the first place.
However, as a Debian user, I really don't care whether this is,
strictly speaking, a kernel bug or not. My operating system suddenly
fails to boot, so some component of the operating system must be at
fault. (Unless it is the hardware, but no attempt was made to find out
if this might be the case.) If it is not the kernel, then it must be
udev, which should ensure that device names do not change randomly, or
the installer, which should have configured the system in such a way
that it continues to function if device names change on reboot
(provided that this behaviour must be expected).
I do not expect you to fix my system. That is my responsibility. But I
don't see why I should waste my time filing bug reports that are not
taken seriously.
Regards
Michael Burschik
--
Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört?
Der kanns mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger
Reply to: