Package: release.debian.org Severity: serious -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512
A week ago, Theodore Ts'o uploaded e2fsprogs 1.47.0 into Debian unstable. This version contains a unannounced change that basically breaks grub2 (and grub-install). This issue has been reported as #1030939 [1] and #1030846 [2]. To "fix" the issue, instead of turning the feature off, a patch to grub2 in Sid has been committed recently. Unfortunately, that only fixes grub in Sid. Grub in Bullseye or any current Ubuntu release *cannot* deal with a filesystem created by this version of e2fsprogs. This basically breaks the debootstrap method of installing a Debian or Ubuntu. If e2fsprogs 1.47.0 is allowed into Testing, we can no longer use the debootstrap method to install a Debian Bullseye (or older) or any Ubuntu release. It requires to manually change the filesystem features before it can be used again. It also makes e.g. vmdb2 in Sid unusable to create images of Bullseye or older Debian releases, or Ubuntu releases. The gain of enabling the metadata_csum_seed feature by default is not noteworthy. It is a feature that hardly anybody needs. I have not seen one use-case nor even relevant search hits. But the loss is heavy. User's can no longer simply follow [3] to install any Debian or Ubuntu system if the filesystem has been created with e2fsprogs 1.47.0. It also breaks software in the midst of the freeze. I hereby ask the release team to step in and either make sure that the metadata_csum_seed feature is not turned on by default in e2fsprogs in Bookworm or that version 1.47.0 is not shipped as part of Bookworm. Reasons: - - this breaks existing tools for no apparant reason - - introducing this breaking change is too late in the release cycle to deal with it properly - - the metadata_csum_seed feature is hardly useful or requested; it can be turned on if necessary; no need to make it the default in Bookworm - - there is no grub upstream release with support for it; only patched grub versions can cope with it - - the change makes it impossible to create filesystems with this version of e2fsprogs and then run a grub-install from a target system that does not cope with that feature; basically breaking the debootstrap method of installing Debian or Ubuntu onto a server (violating #4 of the Debian social contract) - - to cope with the former issues, users will have to know about that incompatibility and ways to deal with it; none of that is prepared; the package maintainer even refuses a NEWS entry - - it breaks vmdb2, only allowing to make images of Debian Bookworm and Sid (if grub is involved) - - pushing this metadata_csum_seed feature violates #4 of the Debian social contract Instead, turning on this feature should be postponed for the next release cycle where a proper transition can be done. [1] https://bugs.debian.org/1030939 [2] https://bugs.debian.org/1030846 [3] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/apds03 Daniel Leidert -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCgAdFiEEvu1N7VVEpMA+KD3HS80FZ8KW0F0FAmPsE8UACgkQS80FZ8KW 0F0Aug/+Kb6xrQcILq+VYpKk/161UXgQA47ccydz78uT3r1eRBVJIPReULZPdjvk W4PDDOYypScsx4+EahdOVViAMiOyzI0eroivZmDItxY1HR6LpKdeQFPLET6FdbfM pDHezFKXqsulYQWLu5M6yPCtMWGCmAtiH9NeppzUY7+dnBr2yzZGitH4pPSh7MmS 9jxRIKG0xGa3wF+a1yEgHE0nPvqD5a97GlwL5+MTg580k/e1VRpaQaYrTRr3CHyK EJbVOu70K+qXgP837x6B5eyYmihJWiNBMxm9JqF1TrwTKXwk26zpZ2+T1uKVgVKj Y5AlZX8Gypdxq0Q3uFPSlzBhetd2wvrUt9hKEb52fdzw3L4AsY2Ken98sAhqy7Xi PGVdihiUSAT5gslthm3qB3fGQQMIEXI3UdHqSx7ARgZJ6Gkf/zIjk5sKl/xiGe+t jJExPdCR7H8+tPNZhJEhx6BLtLs8tLm+zhOAr3rZVekEn3PJJAHOKPs1KPBWinYr FsVBsWBWzOgKNARu31u/o4s5BFV99M45gZqHLs3Mp5TvJqIxkbwS0FDoCa/TausP vojuW4kDPM7Jjw568W4O8csXBiI/qEcEPXZGPrgGVs3Yo1hV/KkJUOkQ9y/VvRps POx+RwF400ov8zOxGPqETkqDjl/2JQ47OOvogJMi6FDRQk+YE2w= =bKh7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
