Bug#268828: Is there any plan for grubconf's #268828?

[Joseph Monti]

Hi,

First, a quick note about the button naming. What I have is a common
Gnome functionality and I have tried to follow the Gnome HIG
[http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/] to the best of my
interpretation. For now I will consider the button wording and
functionality a different case and if you have any input, file a feature
request with a good case for having it changed here
[http://sf.net/projects/grubconf]. I am very serious about usability,
and won't take this lightly if someone presents a valid argument.
Pointing out another well-written Gnome application with the desired
functionality will be helpful too.

Keep in mind that Grubconf is meant to be simple and is meant for those
who don't want to touch the actual configuration file. As much as
possible should be handled transparently, including the notion of saving
a file. They shouldn't even know that it is a file they are writing to.
I personally don't use Grubconf because its just not for me. But its up
to us to write the GUI tools so those who can't.

The close button will automatically save changes if any were made. The
fact that you checked and then unchecked a checkbox constitutes as a
change as Grubconf does not determine if you changed it back to the
original value. This I feel is not an issue at this time, as the
benefits are outweighed by the required additions.

What you can do is hit the revert button, then close; and your
configuration will not be overwritten.

Also, before the configuration is written (when close button is
pressed), your original configuration file is copied to [filename]~. So
if Grubconf did in fact incorrectly write your configuration file, you
can recover it.

Also, if you did not see a "save" button, how would you expect to save
your configuration? 

The Grubconf manual does explain the functionality of the buttons under
section 3.1. See
[http://grubconf.sourceforge.net/manual/x87.html#skomf-controls].

I don't know anything about the destroying of the comment needed by the
update-grub command. If it is a debian-only bug I would suggest that a
separate bug be filed and a debian-only patch be written.

Now, on to what Grubconf did to your menu.lst. ...

I would need to see the original menu.lst (should be menu.lst~ after
Grubconf was run), the new menu.lst that Grubconf created, and the
expected results.

I am also not clear on whether Grubconf crashed. If it did I would need
your hard disk configuration (fdisk -l /dev/hda), any console output,
add a gdb trace. And just to make sure, Grubconf didn't completely erase
your configuration, right?

There were way too many issues raised here. I will try to list them in
an effort to be organized.

1. button wording and functionality change request
2. misinterpretation of button functionality
3. update-grub comment annihilated
4. miswritten configuration file

Hope this helps.

Thanks!
 - Joe

PS. I recently moved, so I have not been able to work on Grubconf. I am
still planning a new release in the not so distant future.

On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 09:02, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> Monti,
> 
> can you check out Debian bug 268828 when you get a chance? Thanks,
> 
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=268828
> 
> 	Luis
> 
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 08:57:23AM -0400, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> > On Sun, Sep 12, 2004 at 01:52:24PM +0100, Esteban Manchado Vel?zquez wrote:
> > > Hi boys,
> > > 
> > >     As the subject says, is there any plan on how to fix #268828? It's RC, and
> > > nobody has commented anything for about two weeks? Is anybody working on that
> > > bug, or any idea on what's the better solution (change the button label [we
> > > would have to check translations in that case], put a warning popup message,
> > > etc.)?
> > > 
> > >     Regards,
> > 
> > This should be looked at by upstream. I'll contact the author and see if
> > he can fix this. I do agree checking the program out and clicking a few
> > buttons here and there shouldn't be writing your menu.lst if you have not
> > clicked a "save" button.
> > 
> > -- 
> > GnuPG Key fingerprint = 113F B290 C6D2 0251 4D84  A34A 6ADD 4937 E20A 525E
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Pkg-grub-devel mailing list
> > Pkg-grub-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
> > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-grub-devel
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[ Joseph Monti ][ joe@joemonti.org ][ http://joemonti.org/ ]
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