[Bug 896647] Re: Ubuntu Boot halts if a windows partition is hibernated

[fig_wright]

Thanks for the 'nobootwait' option, I'll put that in for future.

Although you say mountall doesn't know "this is an optional filesystem
that should be ignored if it can't be mounted", clearly some part of the
process chain does know this because the system knows it has halted
because there is a hibernation file on the partition (hence the message,
if you can see it). This information could be passed to mountall and
used to pass judgement. A partition with a windows hibernation file on
is going to be ntfs and is not going to be "this is a critical
filesystem that we can't boot without".

I have spotted elsewhere: "But it is dangerous to write to the partition
of hibernated OS, because some of the FS tables are still in memory
(well, in hibernation file but not in the FS), applications still have
handles to some files and generally file system state is kind of
unstable." Worst case scenario the offending filesystem could just be
mounted read-only...

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/896647

Title:
  Ubuntu Boot halts if a windows partition is hibernated

Status in “mountall” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  When booting Ubuntu 11.04, if there is an NTFS partition in the
  /etc/fstab file set to automount during boot, and if there is a
  hibernated windows system on that partition... then the boot will halt
  permanently, waiting for user input to a question about proceeding.

  Why is this a bug? It is a bug because so many users now do not have
  functioning visuals during boot due to the complexities of Plymouth -
  in one way or another many users have blank or unresponsive screens
  during boot - until the GDM screen comes up. These users will not be
  able to see the prompt for their input to resolve an issue that does
  not actually need any input to resolve. Any user in this situation
  will have an essentially dead system that will not boot - they they do
  not know that a simple key-press can save their system.

  At the very least the prompt should have a 60 second time-out so that
  if there is no user input (for example if the user cant see the text
  and therefore does not know that input is being expected) then the
  default choice should be made. This will allow the PC to boot to a
  usable state, which the user may be able to find out the problem from.

  In the event of a hibernated system on a peripheral NTFS partition,
  then the default action should be simply to not bother mounting the
  partition. The user will discover soon enough that the partition is
  missing and that something it up with it (it has a hibernated system
  on it) - there is no need to halt the boot for an issue like this.

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