On Saturday, November 12, 2011 16:29:21 Lars Müller wrote:
On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 03:58:12PM +0100, Freigeist wrote:
Am 12.11.2011 04:23, schrieb Jos Poortvliet:
May I ask what the default is? Does openSUSE by default remove your kernel right away or does it keep it until after reboot?
I first had to try it on a fresh standard installation I had not tempered with because I did not know it anymore.
The default is, to remove an old kernel right after the new one was installed and _before_ the new kernel is booted.
Yes, sorry, I messed this up in my last mail. I'm this used to modify/ enable the multiversion feature in zypp.conf. :/
This is so, because by default the two lines in zypp.conf enabling a safer handling of new kernels, are commented out.
I agree with Lars that it would be a very good idea to adopt a new default setting to make the system safer.
Under the assumption that most (if not all) users are going to boot a new kernel and not an older one after a new one has beeen installed, I would suggest to keep the running (new) kernel and its predecessor as new default setting.
This way even an unexperienced or new user, who doesn't know anything about openSUSE but to switch on his machine and starting the applications he wishes to work with, would be able to go back to an older working kernel if the need arises. All that would be required to do so would be to press the "arrow down" key twice in GRUB.
Therefor it would be required to have the
'Multiversion = provides:multiversion(kernel)'
'multiversion.kernels = latest,latest-1,running'
lines in zypp.conf uncommented by default and have the multiversion.kernels line changed to the one above by default.
Full ack.
If we like to make it like real cool operating systems are doing it (like Microsoft Windows ;)) we would even hide the last and the save moder kernel being displayed to the user when the grub menu gets presented. We should only display them if the last boot process somehow failed.
As soon as the /boot/ filesystem is writeable we could create a file which gets removed on shutdown. As soon as this file is still present on the next boot we know something failed and then we have several opportunities:
a) boot the reviously known running kernel disadvantage: the user might miss the issue
b) stay in the grub menu disadvantage: this might be sucking for systems managed remotly
As this might depend on the systems use case it might be best to make it configureable.
My goal is to hide in the graphical - and only there - menu as much as possible irritating from the user.
Some of you might ask what's irritating by some additional lines?
Have you ever tried to let your parents, grand parents, brother, etc. use a Linux system? Each simple and even small chnage - like the welcome message of Firefox after an upgrade let them think something is broken or they messed something up.
The less visual changes noticeable the more userfriendly as system might be seen.
Lars
Ok, but that'll all be for 12.2. I will adjust the text accordingly - this is currently an optional thing and is 'considered for 12.2'. Thanks all! PS and yes, you need to tell us/me about these features - they should be mentioned but I can't smell their existence - just yet. Working on my smell, though... :D