[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#546048: problems with sysv-rc migration dialog

[Craig Sanders]

Package: sysv-rc
Version: 2.87dsf-4

when sysv-rc determines that it can't migrate to dependancy-based boot
sequencing, it uses whiptail to show a report explaining why.

the explanation is good, but when it gets to listing the packages that
caused the problem and why, it is printed as one continuous paragraph
with no line breaks at all. this is an unreadable mess even on systems
with only three or four packages preventing the migration....on a system
which has been continuously upgraded for years with lots of packages
added, removed, upgraded, etc it is daunting.

worse, the list is actually useless. it's transient, not saved anywhere,
so can't be used as a TODO list of things to be investigated and fixed
before running "dpkg-reconfigure sysv-rc".

this can be improved in two ways:

1. the report should be broken in to sections listing a reason (such as
"obsolete init.d script behind", "package removed by not purged") with a
space separated list of packages in each section (for easy copying and
pasting into another terminal to investigate and fix).   attention should
be paid to line and paragraph breaks to make the report human-readable.

for each reason, there should also be a pointer to documentation or
readme notes describing the reason, with suggestions on how to fix it.
for example, what does "There is a loop between service cryptdisks and
raid2 if started", or "insserv: loop involving service checkfs at depth
3" actually mean, and how can i find out how to fix them?  These notes
should be in /usr/share/doc/sysv-rc, not just an external wiki (the wiki
page is good, if incomplete, but the system being upgraded may not have
access to the internet at the time)


2. in addition to displaying the report, it should also be
emailed to root at localhost and/or saved to a particular location
(/tmp/sysvrc-report.txt perhaps) and the location prominently displayed
in the dialog. alternatively, it should ask the user what to do
with the report - save, email (and ask for address, defaulting to
root at localhost), both.

this should probably be an option in debconf (and debconf could then
save the user's preferred email address for re-use with other packages),
but for now just fixing it in sysv-rc will do.


as an example of just how awfully useless this dialog box can be,
i have attached a png screenshot of the dialog (in a 172x56 mrxvt
terminal, with hostnames in tabs blurred for privacy) showing
the dialog that appeared when i upgraded sysv-rc on my main
workstation/server/gateway/firewall box at home.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>
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