Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1318 mails)

[G T Smith <grahamsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Clayton wrote:
> > It is easy to keep a backup kernel. I do it since the initial
> > installation.
> >
> > 1. Go to the boot directory****************************
> >
> > #cd /boot
>
> [snip a bunch of manual CLI steps]
>
> Try explaining that to a new user.... while you are on the phone to
> them... because the computer you are supporting is more than 500km
> away.
>
> While the steps outlined may seem "easy" to an experienced user, they
> are not easy to a new user, nor are they practical to someone who
> doesn't have time to tinker at that level with every kernel update.
>
> Can I do the steps outlined?  Yes, but there is no reason we should
> have to resort to a 9 or 10 step process of manually copying kernels
> around, doing mkinitrd, and manually editing our grub file.  That is
> just silly given that this can be done automatically... and is done
> automatically with other Linux distros (well, at least one that I know
> of anyway).  That automatic backup of existing kernels got me out of a
> bind more than once (machines I do not always have physical or even
> ssh access to).
>
> My question was more to try to spark the idea of... why aren't we
> doing this automatically? and can we do it?
>
> C.

Must admit I wonder about the need to go through some of these stages
(i.e the mkinitrd part), I usually just mirror the boot directory (a
simple copy to /boot.old), copy back what is needed and modify menu.lst
as appropriate if I really want the option to run both the old kernel
and the new kernel (and for me this is rare), and zap the mirror when I
am certain everything is OK. (I do not want or need to be lots of old
kernel versions floating around).

If things do go pear shaped one usually have everything needed to
recover simply. However, I have no need to do things with nvidia driver
builds etc etc, so my requirements are pretty basic and I therefore have
no idea whether this will work with that kind of requirement.

As /boot/initrd and /boot/vmlinuz are symbolic links to the current
version of the relevant files (at least on my system), a
/boot/grub/menu.lst reference to these can simplify reversion to an old
version. A couple of mv actions boot -> boot.new and boot.old -> boot
should revert OK to a previously working system. (Problems could come if
source stuff is installed as well, but if you are using these you are
unlikely to be a newbie anyway, and reasonably cognisant of the issues
involved). Obviously other stuff will need to be done after this, but at
least you will have something usable to work with.

I can understand why this is not standard, if one size may not fit
all because of the propriety driver issue. However, all the basic
components for a simple backup and restore option are already in place
if this is not the case. Which I suspect is all the majority would require.

My usual

- --
==============================================================================
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my
telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

Bjarne Stroustrup
==============================================================================

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