On 2/25/2013 4:54 PM, Ben Hutchings wrote:
[...] But my keyboard was present at
time of install, so one would expect it to work.
Yes, I understand this. Unfortunately this is still going to
randomly go wrong if you upgrade the kernel (or any other package that
contributes to the initramfs) without a keyboard plugged in. (I don't
know what kind of computer you are installing on, but this would be
entirely normal for a server.)
Agreed, that situation can occur, although the server might at least be
connected to a KVM and perhaps newer USB-based KVMs present a "keyboard
presence" even when the KVM focus isn't currently pointing at that
particular server.
The topic isn't perhaps so much about keyboards specifically as it is
about whether a targeted build should support hot pluggable hardware (of
any kind) present at time of build?
For example, I might "permanently" attach a flash drive to a USB port to
boot the system or for other purposes. In fact, some servers have an
*internal* USB port for just that purpose. So even though in principle
the USB device might not be present at the time I happen to randomly
upgrade the kernel or an initramfs-related package, in fact I would
always have it present, and would want it to work.
The existence of hot pluggable hardware certainly presents a conundrum:
do you include all possible drivers? Of course not, it's a "targeted"
build that is supposed to be as small as possible. Do you instead
include none of the drivers? That too won't work.
It seems the correct compromise is to include precisely those drivers
for the hardware (hot pluggable or not) that is present at time of
build. If someone subsequently shoots themselves in the foot because
they disconnected something temporarily during the time they did a
kernel upgrade, well, they'll eventually learn that a targeted build
can't handle that situation.
Perhaps we should also rename 'targetted' to
'what-could-possibly-go-wrong'...
:)
Alex
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