John on S8

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 07:14:47AM +0800, John wrote:

> Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> >We've increased the timeout once already (from 2 seconds to 3 seconds), and
> >while I agree that _when you want it_ a longer timeout would be nice, most
> >users will never know that the grub menu exists, and a longer delay just
> >slows down their boot process.
> >
> >I believe you can hold down the escape key rather than waiting for the
> >prompt to appear.
> >
> There is that message, but the I was dead lucky to get it first time. 
> Second time I missed it and booted what might have been the wrong 
> kernel, and certainly without the opportunity to add kernel parameters.

If for some reason grub was not booting the kernel you expect, then that
would be a bug to be reported and fixed, rather than optimizing for the bug.
Adding kernel parameters is also an exceptional case.

> >Can you be more specific?
> 
> When I'm booting, the Grub menu provides affirmation that it's going to
> boot the kernel _I_ want. Most times (but not always) it's the last one I
> booted.

If you want it to boot the last kernel you selected, you can set 'default
saved' in /boot/grub/menu.lst.  Likewise if you want to change any other
part of the way grub functions.  The defaults are chosen with a very general
audience in mind, and I think in this case they've been fairly successful.

I think we've been a bit remiss in documenting goals like these on the wiki
and elsewhere, and we're working to remedy that.  I think that once we have
more documentation in place, choices like these will seem more justified.
When you talked about the kind of experience that would appeal to Mrs. S.,
that was closer to the mark.  Most users don't even need to know that grub
exists, much less which kernel it is choosing.  Of course, that information
is available to people like you who prefer it, but the default is aimed at
those who don't know and/or don't care.

> >Yes, the error should be reported immediately, rather than after reading
> >the password as well.  Please file a bug (severity minor) about that.
> 
> I cannot at present easily report bugs from that system, it's not on the
> LAN. I hope to have Wireless by week's end.

Let us know how it turns out; in as many cases as possible, we'd prefer to
make this work out of the box.  What kind of card is it, and where did it go
wrong?

-- 
 - mdz