Hello, On Fri, 21 Sep 2007, Michael Burschik wrote: > 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 long as you can clearly identify that this is not due to "operator error" (:-)) it is indeed a bug against some package/packages. However, in order to file the bug correctly it helps if you can identify the package which is causing the failure. I admit that in the case of a non-booting system this may not be entirely trivial. > 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. Which indicates that the bug is not with the kernel. > However, as a Debian user, I really don't care whether this is, > strictly speaking, a kernel bug or not. But to file a bug report which can result in appropriate corrective measures (and indeed that is the purpose of filing a bug report --- though occasionally one succumbs to the temptation to file a bug report based one's annoyance at that %@#-thing that refuses to function properly), it is necessary to identify correctly the source of the problem. > If it is not the kernel, then it must be > udev, which should ensure that device names do not change randomly Which is does *if* an appropriate configuration file for persistent names has been created. > 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). If indeed the partition to which the system was installed was created by the Debian installer and the boot mechanism was installed by the installer then this does seem to point to a bug in the installer. > 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. Isaac Asimov (I think) once wrote an entire short story based on the theme: To ask the correct question one must already know most of the answer. This happens to also apply to bug reports. However, please be patient and try again --- we will all benefit as a result of your patience and effort. Regards, Kapil. --
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