Is there room for improvement in rescue mode? (was Re: Goodbye, Fedora)

[bloch at verdurin.com]

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, Jeff Spaleta wrote:

> In an effort to chart a new course of constructive discussion... is it
> worth brainstorming a bit about how to make rescue mode better or more
> accessible?
> 
> For the purposes of this discussion, we will take it for granted that
> at some point in the course of a 3 or 4 releases, many (i dare not say
> most..but many) people who are acting as the primary sysadmin for a
> fedora install will experience some sort of human error which will
> render their system unbootable.  This is an unasailable axiom for the
> rest of this discussion.
> 
> What can we do in the timescale of an F8 release to make using the
> rescue mode easier and more obvious course of action.  Are there ways
> we can advertise its existence as part of sysadmin interaction with a
> normal operating system? Would it be helpful to slip in a rescue
> environment as a grub menu option instead of relying on install media?
> Does it make sense to spend some effort making a more featurefull
> rescue-like environment with guided troubleshooting characteristics?
> What are the top three implementable ideas which would encourage
> casual admins to reach for the rescue environment instead of a full
> wipe and re-install?
> 

Tangentially related to this, I think the guidance available via the
function keys before booting the kernel could do with a lot more detail
about (for instance) kernel parameters.  A more detailed introduction to
rescue mode would also be helpful