grub-install message should mention --recheck

grub-install message should mention --recheck

[jidanni]

Please implement these changes in making this typical grub-install
message. Thanks.

     # grub-install /dev/hda
     Installation finished. No error reported.
     This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
-    Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
-    fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
+    If not correct try --recheck, or fix and rerun.

     (hd0)   /dev/hda

Re: grub-install message should mention --recheck

[Isaac Dupree]

jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:
> Please implement these changes in making this typical grub-install
> message. Thanks.
> 
>      # grub-install /dev/hda
>      Installation finished. No error reported.
>      This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
> -    Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
> -    fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
> +    If not correct try --recheck, or fix and rerun.

but the original message was much more clear about what you 
should do.  And what do you mean by --recheck.. is this 
correct interpretation?:

-- Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is 
incorrect, try `grub-install --recheck` (or is it 
`grub-install --recheck /dev/hda`?).  Or (under what 
circumstances should you try which solution?) edit 
/boot/grub/device.map, and then re-run grub-install (i.e., 
`grub-install /dev/hda`).

-Isaac

Re: grub-install message should mention --recheck

[jidanni]

ID> try `grub-install --recheck` (or is it `grub-install --recheck

Thanks. I am trying to say that four out of five times "adding
--recheck to the invocation" will do what the user wants, instead of
needing him to fire up an editor. So please mention it somehow.

[PATCH] grub-install message should mention --recheck

[jidanni]

*** grub-installORIG.in	2008-12-27 02:43:09.000000000 +0800
--- grub-install.in	2008-12-27 04:06:02.000000000 +0800
***************
*** 304,310 ****
  # Prompt the user to check if the device map is correct.
! echo "Installation finished. No error reported."
! echo "This is the contents of the device map $device_map."
! echo "Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,"
! echo "fix it and re-run the script \`grub-install'."
! echo
  
--- 304,310 ----
  # Prompt the user to check if the device map is correct.
! cat <<EOF
! Installation finished. No error reported. These are the contents of
! the device map $device_map. If any of the lines are incorrect, fix it
! and/or re-run grub-install [--recheck].
! EOF

Re: [PATCH] grub-install message should mention --recheck

[Pavel Roskin]

On Sat, 2008-12-27 at 04:08 +0800, jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:
> *** grub-installORIG.in	2008-12-27 02:43:09.000000000 +0800
> --- grub-install.in	2008-12-27 04:06:02.000000000 +0800
> ***************
> *** 304,310 ****
>   # Prompt the user to check if the device map is correct.
> ! echo "Installation finished. No error reported."
> ! echo "This is the contents of the device map $device_map."
> ! echo "Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,"
> ! echo "fix it and re-run the script \`grub-install'."
> ! echo
>   
> --- 304,310 ----
>   # Prompt the user to check if the device map is correct.
> ! cat <<EOF
> ! Installation finished. No error reported. These are the contents of
> ! the device map $device_map. If any of the lines are incorrect, fix it
> ! and/or re-run grub-install [--recheck].
> ! EOF

Actually, grub-install should not dump the whole device.map to the
screen.  It should only show the entries that it actually used during
the installation.  If no device.map entries were used (which is true in
99% cases, I guess), there should be no message at all.

I'm not against mentioning "grub-install --recheck", although I'd like
to see comment from the users of cross-device setups where device.map is
actually used.  They should know better if grub-install --recheck" does
the right thing or grossly discards their manually crafted device.map
files.  If the later is true, maybe it's better to keep the current
message.
> 
-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: [PATCH] grub-install message should mention --recheck

[jidanni]

All I know is the day I discovered --recheck, I kicked myself for
doing it by hand for a month because the message didn't alert me.
Do mention it one way or another. OK, I leave this in your hands.

Re: [PATCH] grub-install message should mention --recheck

[Robert Millan]

On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 02:48:25AM -0500, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> Actually, grub-install should not dump the whole device.map to the
> screen.  It should only show the entries that it actually used during
> the installation.  If no device.map entries were used (which is true in
> 99% cases, I guess), there should be no message at all.

Is it 99, or 100% ?  I think the only case we have left is when user does:

  grub-install "(hd0)"

instead of:

  grub-install /dev/sda

and IMHO we should deprecate this syntax so users will stop assuming GRUB
will guess "(hd0)" as the first BIOS drive.

However, I think disk/host.c still needs device.map only to know which
devices have to be registered.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."