Framebuffers, plymouth, upstart and server installs.

[Sander Smeenk]

Hello list,

I recently got directed here from ubuntu-devel-discuss with my
pet-peeves on how i think Ubuntu Server is not really tailored for
servers [anymore], the thread of which you can read up on here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2013-January/014163.html

I wrote about these issues in an earlier thread on this list too:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-server/2011-April/thread.html

Basically it boils down to quotes from the above shown threads;
| "I like to be able to watch the [boot] process happen. [ .. ] I don't
| care if my server looks pretty when it's booting.  I do care that I
| can see at what point in the boot process a catastrophic failure has
| occurred."
and;
| "[ .. ] under no circumstance should a server blindly come up in a mode
| in which it cannot display to a virtual console. Never. Ever. No Excuse."

In fact, and i really, *really* don't mean to insult any one involved in
ubuntu-server development, but i kind-of wonder if the people putting
all this hard work in ubuntu-server are actually using ubuntu-server on a
daily basis on more than one system like a lot of sysadmins like myself
do.

Me and my team manage roughly 200 servers running Ubuntu. We encounter
situations where we have old CRT monitors, shady KVM-switches and crappy
ILOM/ELOM/DRAC java implementations with which we have to manage our
servers. Situations where (we/the customer) botched something up which
makes the bootprocess fail, etc.

Framebuffers, or rather 'special video modes', are somewhat unstable on
server hardware and/or plain right incompatible with shady KVM
implementations which are, unfortunately, commonly used in colocated
environments.

What i really want to know is 'why' all this is necessary on server
installs ad what we / i can do to get a clearer view on what is
actually going on during boot.

The path Ubuntu Server followed from Ubuntu Desktop is to depend on
framebuffers and upstart during boot and to switch off the GRUB menu
by default.

I'd like to propose the (re)introduction of a special '-server' kernel
which has no framebuffers enabled? Some mechanism to tune GRUB into
verbose, 80x24 text mode when installed on a Server setup? Implement
'tee(1)' functionality in Upstart perhaps?

Is any of this discussable? 

With warm regards,
-Sander.
-- 
| 0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down,
| pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall.
| 4096R/20CC6CD2 - 6D40 1A20 B9AA 87D4 84C7  FBD6 F3A9 9442 20CC 6CD2