Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 00:30:57 -0700 From: Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net> To: Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: interesting problem Message-ID: <20000929003056.A27736@fw.wintelcom.net> In-Reply-To: <200009281033.GAA42518@lakes.dignus.com>; from rivers@dignus.com on Thu, Sep 28, 2000 at 06:33:03AM -0400 References: <20000927183939.B7553@fw.wintelcom.net> <200009281033.GAA42518@lakes.dignus.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
* Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com> [000928 03:34] wrote:
>
> Alfred,
>
> Just playing `devils advocate' here. But, in some initial
> install situations, exactly how is the user, even the most
> knowledgeable one, supposed to do much of anything if the
> install itself doesn't work? Not too much chance of building
> a kernel, getting a crashdump, etc...
I think I just detailed how one could do that in my first two
responses.
> Although it may be something we want to put off for awhile,
> being able to gather debugging information during a failed
> install would be rather nice. I'm not sure how this could
> happen; perhaps a crashdump to an MSDOS file system (if available)?
> Or, straight to a partition with some recovery program that
> reads the dump? Or, over a serial line? [Just tossing out ideas.]
> Maybe ficl can get involved and manage this?
>
> I would keep this as one of those "maybe nice to have in the
> ideal future" ideas - but it's something to ponder...
Yes, it's a very good idea. I've brought up changing the default
panic to output a traceback so that the user could post it, but
bringing it up is a far cry from implementing it.
* even without debug symbols a traceback can be very helpful
if one can locate the IP and text addresses of the kernel.
However, he shouldn't have been using -current in the first
place, and when someone offers to reach out and help it's not the
time to get snippy about it. (seriously, refusing to read the
handbook?)
I've been guilty of this sort of cluelessness and arrogance in the
past and I'm glad that a few people came down on me about my attitude
while at the same time offering extremely useful advice. Jordan,
Mike Smith and John Polstra to name a few, all in one incident
actually. I think without their application of knowledge and
smack-down I wouldn't have learned nearly as much.
--
-Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org]
"I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk."
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000929003056.A27736>