Bug 273104

Summary: Repair function on boot DVD/CD hard to get at
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE 10.3 Reporter: Casual J. Programmer <casualprogrammer>
Component: InstallationAssignee: Evamaria Fuchs <evamaria.fuchs>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE QA Contact: Jiri Srain <jsrain>
Severity: Enhancement    
Priority: P5 - None CC: aj, forgotten_--EoyBps8f, jsuchome, locilka, snwint
Version: Alpha 3plus   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86   
OS: openSUSE 10.3   
Whiteboard:
Found By: Beta-Customer Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---
Bug Depends on:    
Bug Blocks: 293827    

Description Casual J. Programmer 2007-05-10 07:49:49 UTC
I suggest giving the repair function its own menu entry in the boot menu of the boot DVD/CD

Currently you need to select "Installation", set up language, accept the openSuSE alpha agreement, accept the License Agreement, skip (or not) the media check for the DVD/CD, then select from "New Installation", "Update" or "Other Options".

Only when you select "Other Options" it reveals its secrets:

"Repair installed system" and "Boot installed system" where the latter seems pretty redundant.

Adding "Repair installed system" as well as "Media check" to the boot menu of the DVD/CD would make life way easier, especially when this entry needs to be selected, most people are not in the mood to play "hide and search"

The boot menu currently offers:

"Boot from hard disk"
"Installation"
"Installation--ACPI disabled"
"Installation--Local APIC disabled"
"Installation--Safe Settings"
"Rescue System"
"Firmware Test"
"Memory Test"
Comment 1 Matej Horvath 2007-05-10 15:37:15 UTC
"Rescue System"
Comment 2 Casual J. Programmer 2007-05-10 15:59:11 UTC
Good point, 

this should be replaced by a "live" DVD/CD function. 

Since 1988 wer'e living in a GUI world. Not sure if anybody has managed to mount existing volumes via "Rescue System", I regularly fail at it. It seems to be even less functional than the Windows "Recovery Console" 
Comment 3 Evamaria Fuchs 2007-05-18 08:53:45 UTC
we are working on it! Wait til 10.3!
Comment 4 Casual J. Programmer 2007-05-18 10:26:50 UTC
"Wait til 10.3!"

I thought this IS 10.3 ???
Comment 5 Jiří Suchomel 2007-05-30 08:59:56 UTC
Evamaria, what does it mean "we are working on it"? This is not a usability case, this is just a request to enhance the boot menu.

Steffen, could you comment?
Comment 6 Jiří Suchomel 2007-05-30 09:03:34 UTC
Adding also Andreas and Lukas.

I think the problem is caused by the solution of bug 156529, because of which the repair functionality is hardly visible. One possible solution is to modify the boot menu, another would be to fix that dialog in the installation workflow again.
Comment 7 Steffen Winterfeldt 2007-05-31 12:29:11 UTC
Adding 'repair' to the boot menu comes up once in a while. It's fine
with me to add a menu entry, but as comment 0 shows, it is rather crowded
already.

Suggestions anyone? My favorite: dump those four different 'install' variants.
Comment 8 Lukas Ocilka 2007-05-31 12:32:57 UTC
IMO, you could maybe add just another switch for type of the installation next to the Language selection or so.

Install Mode
--------------------
Normal
ACPI disabled
Local APIC disabled
Safe Settings

just an idea...
Comment 9 Steffen Winterfeldt 2007-05-31 13:07:18 UTC
Will people find it?
Comment 10 Casual J. Programmer 2007-05-31 14:24:21 UTC
Why not supply a "live" installation with repair features ? In any case it should be clearly sticking out from the CD/DVD menu, so people in confusion because they just did something awful won't overlook it.

Most of the repair functions need review as well, like there is 

No repair for a screwed up sax2 setting :-(

No grub boot for people having scrubbed their MBR

The dependency checking of installed files usually comes up with a heap of crap if you did updates regularly.

The best emergency function to date is the Windows XP partition ( if its still accessible ) I can at least edit and correct configuration files that got corrupted using ext2fs.

Very helpful would be a compulsory backup of vital config files at boot time, so, if the next boot fails, it has a fallback to try. Even the much hated Windows offers that for years now.
Comment 11 Forgotten User --EoyBps8f 2007-07-02 16:31:17 UTC
If this bug is not about having a live-cd with repair-tools, but just about the user finding the repair-functions, I think it is a duplicate of 141219.
Comment 12 Andreas Jaeger 2007-07-02 17:27:54 UTC
Yes, I agree.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 141219 ***