Comment 28 for bug 33649

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 9:25 AM, tricky1 <email address hidden> wrote:
> @Dustin:
> Do I err with my impression that your intension is to get some quick fix

My intention is to fix this multi-faceted bug in an incremental and
solvable manner.

That the bug has been around for 2.5 years is a testament to the fact
that it is difficult to solve. Breaking it down into manageable bits
is a tried and true software development process.

> a) I am not fluent enough in bashing, so I can give only some hints easily
> realiziable for willing experts:

I understand. My asking for a patch is a polite way of saying that
while you or others might be willing/interested in implementing the
functionality, I do not think it to be a productive use of my time.
However, I'm not entirely closed off to the idea (should someone else
do a good job with it), and I'll gladly review the code and offer
constructive criticism.

> (btw smartctl adds 176K to 8M of initrd and imho is worth the effort).
>
> Do for all devices used in array:

Firstly, this is off-topic for the current bug against grub. If you
really desire SMART disk scanning in the initramfs, please open a new
wishlist bug against initramfs-tools and capture these requests there.

smartctl cannot necessarily be used on all devices in an array. It
does not work on all drives. It will not work on USB connected media,
flash disks, or other increasingly popular alternatives to traditional
IDE/SCSI disks. And in my experience, it has yielded both false
positives, and false negatives.

I think that SMART is more trouble than it's worth *in the initramfs*.
 Please use SMART until your heart is content in runtime. Run it in a
cronjob, using smartctl+mdadm and email yourself the results, if you
want.

> b) Did I misunderstand when assuming that kernel boot paramters must be
> set beforhand (when grub is running) or how will the user interface
> look.

Kernel boot parameters can be statically set in the grub menu.lst, or
dynamically in the grub boot menu. The boot process needs to be as
automatic as possible. Asking questions detracts from the ability to
perform unattended boots.

:-Dustin