Re: Aptitude/Grub Problem -- Is this a bug?
On Friday 24 February 2006 17:06, Joey Hess wrote:
> Hal Vaughan wrote:
> > It didn't just remove an entry. Update-grub completely overwrites
> > the file so any entries for kernels on other partitions are gone.
>
> ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
> ## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
> ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options
> below
>
> If you put a custom kernel entry in between these lines without
> reading the above, then you made a mistake and update-grub was well
> within its rights to delete it.
Yes, that's come up in this thread. I don't know if my copy of menu.lst
is non-standard at this point, but when I loaded it in vi and edited
the kernels I needed to, that was nowhere near what I was working on.
Since it's come up since, I checked and it was at least a screen, if
not two, above the section I was working on.
I'd *like* to go through and read every comment in every config file I
edit, but after a while, if you are actually using your computer as a
tool, instead of as something to spend forever setting it up, there is
a practical limit to just how much you can hunt and peruse through each
file to find info. I'm running a business, which, until recently, took
16 hours a day, including writing the software and keeping it running.
I read as much as I can on things like this, but, as in all things, if
you're actually *doing* something and not just using the computer to
play Mr. Admin, there's a point where you have to work with the docs
you've read on the "howto" to fix what you're dealing with.
The other point is that I did not see anything, anywhere, saying, "If
the kernel is updated, even if the kernel version number stays the
same, update-grub will be run and your auto-magic kernels will be
overwritten." In other words, the default is to run update grub, which
can overwrite, but it isn't stated anywhere and aptitude or whatever
program aptitude runs to update the kernel image does not warn the
user.
> If you put it anywhere else in the file and update-grub removed it,
> then the debian bug tracking system is at http://bugs.debian.org/ for
> your bug report.
I've filed it. My sense is the responder is more in a hurry to close it
so he doesn't have to actually work on it than in looking at the
problem. I'm corresponding with him and I'll see what happens. My
position is that as aptitude is upgrading the system, before it runs
update-grub, it should notify the user it's about to be overwritten.
Why not? Every other time it overwrites a config file, it does that.
Hal
P.S. Sorry if I sound a bit snotty -- I know now there is that comment
in menu.lst, but even if I had read it (and may have) at first, it
still didn't say anything about kernel updates and that forcing
update-grub to be run. I'm just overall irritated that every config
file on my system warrants a prompt whether or not I want it
overwritten, except the one file needed to boot it in the first place.
It's not you -- right now I'm just pissed off at a maintainer who would
rather say, "It's not my job," then to examine the issue and solve it.
I am hoping he understands my responses and sees what I mean.
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