FS#27325 - [linux] Revert from annoying unhelpful warning message in linux.install

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Mark (voidzero) - Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 15:57 GMT
Last edited by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 13:01 GMT
Task Type General Gripe
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Architecture All
Severity Very Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 1
Private No

Details

In linux.install:
echo "WARNING: /boot appears to be a seperate partition but is not mounted."
echo " You probably just broke your system. Congratulations."

Previous linux.install contained:
echo "WARNING: /boot appears to be a seperate partition but is not mounted"
echo " This is most likely not what you want. Please mount your /boot"
echo " partition and reinstall the kernel unless you are sure this is OK"

I'm not sure why this change occurred and of the reason behind it ("congratulations")...? A rude choice that is not helpful but annyoing at most :) The old message was better and should be reinstated - or improved:

"WARNING: /boot is enabled in fstab as a separate partition, but is currently not mounted. This is most likely....etc."
This task depends upon

Closed by  Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 13:01 GMT
Reason for closing:  None
Additional comments about closing:  Removed major part of this message.
Comment by Mark (voidzero) - Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 15:58 GMT
s/partition/mount point/ and /s/enabled/listed/
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 16:27 GMT
The old message was not helpful at all. It was pointed out to me that the old instructions were wrong - although I don't remember why.

About the new message: Arch tries not to deal with broken user setups. In my opinion, there should be no message at all - but then users reported their own fuckups as bugs. If you broke your system in such a way that some system partitions are not mounted (such as /boot), there is really no point in giving you instructions. Clearly, you know better anyway.
Comment by michiel (buis) - Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 08:16 GMT
This unhelpful message came to me with the last update. It is definately NOT good advertising for Arch. The message should be altered. Note that the fault lies in the update, not the system configuration.
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 08:30 GMT
The fault does lie in the system configuration. This error only happens if the user deliberately breaks the fstab, or updates in a chroot that is not properly set up.

And by the way, there is no intention by developers to "advertise Arch" whatsoever, so that's not an argument. Furthermore, the message helps users realize that they hit an actual problem that will prevent them from booting next time. The old message was often ignored.


In my opinion, this check should have never been added in the first place, pacman or the kernel package shouldn't care about whether the user broke his filesystem layout.
Comment by Mark (voidzero) - Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 12:36 GMT
Thomas, are you intentionally making Archlinux sound like it's a dictatorship? just change the message to the text in the bug report and close this message. Stop being so pedantic, you're making a fool out of yourself and that is just as annoying as this bug that could have been corrected months ago.

Loading...