more user-friendly recovery
Currently, if the user selects "recovery mode" from the bootloader menu they end up dropped at a root shell prompt.
Ideally, they'd end up at a small ncurses application, one option of which would be "root shell".
Other options can include things like "start system in safe graphics mode" or "forgotten password recovery".
Blueprint information
- Status:
- Complete
- Approver:
- Martin Pitt
- Priority:
- Low
- Drafter:
- Allison Karlitskaya
- Direction:
- Needs approval
- Assignee:
- Allison Karlitskaya
- Definition:
- Approved
- Series goal:
- Accepted for gutsy
- Implementation:
-
Implemented
- Milestone target:
- None
- Started by
- Allison Karlitskaya
- Completed by
- Martin Pitt
Whiteboard
review: OK, but no empty sections please -- smurf 2007-05-11
pitti: looks good, approved
Note that the X case will be handled in a more convenient way by bullet-proof-x. What about serial consoles, where you don't know the terminal type yet? -mdz, 2007-05-20
(desrt) mdz: i haven't thought about serial consoles. if there is some way to detect that we're on a serial console then i recommend not showing the menu since this type of user will almost certainly know what to do with a root prompt. also, we will still want a "boot in safe video mode" option for when X starts up successfully but is driving the user's monitor out of range (consider if they switch monitors and, like it often is, hardware autodetect is broken...).
dendrobates (Rick): I don't think you should take away the choice of menu from serial consoles. I think it is wrong to assume that the user that setup the serial console is the same user that is recovering the system. They might have completely different skill sets. /usr/bin/tty will give you the device, if it is not a pty it might be safe to assume it is some type of limited functionality console. I don't think you can have a hard coded list of serial device names, there are too many potential addon devices that mike have unusual naming structures, i.e. cyclades.
(desrt) note that 'tty' gives "/dev/console" in single user mode. i'm thinking some sort of ioctl on stdout could be used to determine if we're at the console. will look into it a bit later.
jhansonxi: I love this idea. I was about to start writing a script using dialog for the interface on Feisty. I propose a few additional functions or plugins that should be pushed for:
Midnight Commander which also works with serial consoles (see my comments at the end of http://
Setting up a smb link to transfer files off of a failing system.
Smartctl for checking drive smart status
Sensors support for identifying heat or fan problems.
Show/edit network settings including setting up DDNS for temporary SSH server access by off-site technician.
Be able to activate a dial-up ppp link possibly using existing gnome-ppp settings.
Provide access to web browser, instant messenger, mail, IRC.
Quick fixes for out-of-space conditions like apt-get clean and emptying user .Trash folders, browser cache.
n00b-friendly diagnostic help.
mvo: pushed the initial implementation of Ryan to http://
mvo: uploaded the current bzr version to the archive
mvo: seeded into ubuntu-standard in hardy
