Re: Should I report a failure to boot?
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:51:10 +0100
> Von: tim hall <tim@64studio.com>
> An: Michael Burschik <michael.burschik@gmx.de>, debian-qa@lists.debian.org
> Betreff: Re: Should I report a failure to boot?
> Kapil Hari Paranjape wrote:
> > 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 have come across reports of this sort of behaviour before. These
> problems were with the etch installer IIRC and involved
> /boot/grub/menu.lst being created with the wrong device names. More
> information would take more searching than I have time for right now. If
> it's really important I could try and track it down.
>
> cheers,
>
> tim
> 64 Studio support
Thanks for your offer, but I think my problem is different. The grub configuration is correct, but the kernel names the relevant hard disk either hdb or hdf, and udev does not prevent the problem.
Regards
Michael Burschik
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