Bug#309932: gnome-system-tools: boot-admin is DANGEROUS

[Johannes Rohr]

Package: gnome-system-tools
Version: 1.2.0-1
Severity: normal
Tags: experimental

Boot-admin seems to be /very/ experimental. 

Even though the doc claims to support GNU/Hurd style booting, boot-admin
fails to recognize an existing GNU/Hurd boot stanza. The properties
dialogue provides only space for a single module. GNU/Hurd needs two of
them and both modules need to be passed arguments, else Hurd will not
boot. BTW: Other multiboot compliant OSes like VSTa or Syllable use even
more modules than Hurd. So boot-admin should support any number of
modules plus individual command line parameters for each of them.

Furthermore, boot-admin fails to recognize certain chainloader commands:
I boot ReactOS through

title ReactOS
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader /bootsect.ros # This is where ReactOS puts its bootsector if
                          #it detects an installed NT/XP
savedefault

boot-admin seems to know only the frequently used "chainloader +1" and
fails to understand "chainloader /somefile".  Consequently, clicking on
"Properties" and then on OK. will destroy the configuration, replacing
it with:

title ReactOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Note that boot-admin has also silently omitted the "savedefault" line.

Further, boot-admin has completely fucked up the VSTa and GNU/Hurd boot
configuration. 

This was before:

title Debian GNU/Hurd 0.3 pre
savedefault
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/gnumach.gz root=device:hd0s9
module /hurd/ext2fs.static
--multiboot-command-line=${kernel-command-line}
--host-priv-port=${host-port} --device-master-port=${device-port}
--exec-server-task=${exec-task} -T typed ${root} $(task-create)
$(task-resume)
module /lib/ld.so.1 /hurd/exec $(exec-task=task-create)

This after:

title Debian GNU/Hurd 0.3 pre
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/gnumach.gz root=device:hd0s9
module /hurd/ext2fs.static

This was before:

title VSTa 1.6.8
savedefault
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vsta/boot/vsta
module /vsta/boot/cons
module /vsta/boot/namer
module /vsta/boot/wd d0:readp
module /vsta/boot/dos -d //disk/wd:wd0_dos0 -n fs/root
module /vsta/boot/init

This after:

title VSTa 1.6.8
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vsta/boot/vsta
module /vsta/boot/cons

Please not that I did NOT touch the boot configs for those two OS in
boot-admin. I simply clicked on "properties" and then chose "cancel".
However, when you click on O.K. in the main menu, boot-admin will
apparantly rewrite the whole menu.lst, regardless of whether you
actually modified anything.

Fortunately it did not destroy those bits before 

### BEGIN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST

I.e. the comments that are needed to make Debian's update-grub command
work were left intact. However, all comments following 

### END AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST

were silently deleted.

Well, it its current shape this tool is /dangerous/. І don't know if it
is realistic to expect the upstream developers to implement the full
command syntax that grub offers. If they choose not to do so, they
should at least try to make their tool stay away from entries that it
does not understand. If it encounters such, it should at least WARN
before doing something potentially dangerous like throwing aways
existing command lines, giving full details about what it intends to do.

Thanks,

Johannes

Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-k7
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages gnome-system-tools depends on:
ii  libart-2.0-2         2.3.17-1            Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0          1.10.1-1            The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0        0.2.6-6             Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0         2.8.1-2             Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0       2.8.1-2             The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                2.3.2.ds1-21        GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libesd-alsa0 [libesd 0.2.35-2            Enlightened Sound Daemon (ALSA) - 
ii  libgconf2-4          2.10.0-1            GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt11          1.2.0-11            LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0          1:2.5.1-1           library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0         2.6.4-1             The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-keyring0    0.4.2-1             GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgnome2-0          2.10.0-1            The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0    2.8.0-1             A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0         2.10.0-1            The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0       2.10.1-3            The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnutls11          1.0.16-9            GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgpg-error0        1.0-1               library for common error values an
ii  libgtk2.0-0          2.6.4-1             The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6              4.3.0.dfsg.1-12.0.1 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62            6b-9                The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  libnautilus-extensio 2.10.0-1            libraries for nautilus components 
ii  liborbit2            1:2.12.2-1          libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0        1.8.1-1             Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0             1.7-5               lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6               4.3.0.dfsg.1-12.0.1 X Window System Session Management
ii  libtasn1-2           0.2.10-4            Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libx11-6             4.3.0.dfsg.1-12.0.1 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxml2              2.6.16-7            GNOME XML library
ii  perl                 5.8.4-8             Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  system-tools-backend 1.2.0-1             System Tools to manage computer co
ii  xlibs                4.3.0.dfsg.1-12     X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configu
ii  zlib1g               1:1.2.2-4           compression library - runtime

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