errors.ubuntu.com: mechanism on Server

[Scott Kitterman]

On Thursday, June 06, 2013 12:44:47 PM Clint Byrum wrote:
> On 2013-06-06 03:51, Robie Basak wrote:
> >> [Daviey] ... *how* to do it...
> > 
> > I thought I'd summarise the mechanism we've proposed here, so it's in
> > one place for others to follow and discuss further if they wish.
> > 
> > 1. d-i will prompt for automatic error uploads to errors.ubuntu.com.
> > This will default to Yes. The installer will be able to select No, or
> > preseed this answer. MAAS will be able to use this preseed according
> > to
> > its own global configuration.
> 
> Turning this on without explicit user authorization would be a breach
> of confidence in Ubuntu Server. You and I know that these errors are not
> going to have sensitive information in them, but users will now be
> forced to audit this system or choose to turn it off. Either way, if
> they fail to notice, they may discover it later and be quite unhappy
> that data is leaving their systems that they weren't aware of. I like
> the approach of collecting crash reports locally by default and
> notifying users about them, but I think Ubuntu should only send them on
> user request.

Of course this should be defaulted to no.    Given that the reports to e.u.c 
are treated as more sensitive than crash reports to Launchpad, it is at best 
counter-intuitive to expect that sending reports is a reasonable default.

> Also, you fail to mention what will be the default on the cloud images.

I don't think it should be any different.

> > 2. If enabled above, then there will be no further interaction. Crash
> > reports will automatically be uploaded. We'll log this activity, of
> > course. Perhaps we can even email root if an MTA is detected?
> > 
> > 3. If disabled above, then the crash report will sit pending in
> > 
> > /var/crash. We will then additionally:
> >   a. Note on the motd that there are pending reports.
> >   b. Note on the bash prompt that there are pending reports.
> 
> Please do not put it on the bash prompt. Do you want to nag people
> enough to move to another OS?

Agreed, or at best to disable reporting.

> I like putting it in the MOTD though.

That seems reasonable.

Scott K