Bug#501306: update-grub fails silently with wrong device.map

[Raphael Hertzog]

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008, Robert Millan wrote:
> > Sorry but I don't understand how you concile the two sentences that you
> > gave:
> > - on one side you say that "-t drive" only fails when device.map is wrong
> >   and you accept that we invite the user to regenerate it
> 
> s/regenerate/check/g.  When device.map is wrong, it doesn't necessarily mean
> we have to regenerate it.  This could be our own fault, e.g. if
> grub-mkdevicemap doesn't recognise a new device type.

What do you expect the user to do when he "checks" the device.map ?

He will likely try to re-generate it or hand-edit it if he knows what this
is all about. But most users will be left in the cold… I believe that an
advanced user will sort it out even if the file has been regenerated, in
particular if he has been informed of it. We could also keep a copy of
the file if we regenerate it to ease debugging.

> > - on the other side you tell me that trying to regenerate it only when "-t
> >   drive" fails has been tried and was worse than the problem
> > 
> > What do I miss ?
> 
> The behaviour is inconsistent with what users tend to reasonably expect, and
> very confusing to those who aren't aware of it.

That's why I added an echo statement that explicitely informs the user
that the file got regenerated.

> See for example #479056. Also, it makes debugging a PITA.