From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 9 16:17:44 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx2.freebsd.org (mx2.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::35]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20D4E106564A; Sat, 9 Jun 2012 16:17:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from opti.dougb.net (hub.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::36]) by mx2.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9122114EA79; Sat, 9 Jun 2012 16:17:43 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <4FD37727.60705@FreeBSD.org> Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:17:43 -0700 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://SupersetSolutions.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120608 Thunderbird/12.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andriy Gapon References: <4FD05C16.9040905@FreeBSD.org> <20120607084738.GT85127@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua> <4FD06CD3.3080602@FreeBSD.org> <20120607095741.GA1361@reks> <4FD0BAC6.6000304@FreeBSD.org> <4FD0EEB1.10103@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4FD0EEB1.10103@FreeBSD.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.4.2 OpenPGP: id=D5B2F0FB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: boot menu option to disable graphics mode X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:17:44 -0000 On 06/07/2012 11:10, Andriy Gapon wrote: > on 07/06/2012 17:29 Doug Barton said the following: >> On 06/07/2012 02:57 AM, Gleb Kurtsou wrote: >>> What do you think about adding generic support for overriding *_enable >>> options in rc.conf? >>> >>> I'd like to be able to disable services at boot prompt, e.g. >>> # set rc.slim_enable="no" -- overrides slim_enable="yes" in rc.conf >>> >>> Similarly rc.pf_enable="no" >>> >>> Then introduce x_enable knob (=yes by default) to disable login >>> managers. User will be able to override this setting with >>> # service xdm forcestart >> >> Why not just: >> >> boot single user >> fsck -p >> mount -a >> $EDITOR /etc/rc.conf[.local] >> > > Ah, right. Why provide a way to do something using one command at one prompt > (or even toggling a menu option using a single keystroke) when you can already > do the same using multiple commands at multiple places (and also trying to not > forget to undo your changes later)... I realize you were being sarcastic, but your question deserves an answer. If this were a problem we didn't already have a solution for, I'd be much more interested in what you're proposing. But in no particular order ... 1. This is not something most users would have to do very often, if at all. 2. We have a variety of different login managers, several of which do things subtly differently, all of which would need ongoing support. 3. While the changes you're proposing sound simple, the startup stuff has some subtle interactions that we don't like to disrupt without good reason. It's also worth pointing out that if all you need is a shell at boot time, you can still do Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get that, without having to change anything. And if you find yourself needing to prevent the login manager from starting more often than not, just disable it by default and start it with 'service onestart', or use startx. My point being that this doesn't come with zero costs, and has very little benefit. That usually spells "no" in my book. Doug -- This .signature sanitized for your protection