rhgb

[Paul W. Frields]

On Mon, 2003-10-27 at 16:50, Gene C. wrote:
> I think you may have missed my point.  
> 
> I do what to run the graphical boot and don't really want to look at all the 
> messages during "normal" boot-up.  
> 
> However, I also want to be alerted to any problems starting services.  It 
> would be adequate if I was alerted to the fact that errors occurred and then 
> I could look at the boot log.

Perhaps a good middle ground is "I want to know if there were *any
failures at all* during the boot." To me, this is easily resolved by
having a small "red exclamation point" icon turned on (in keeping with
other thematic notices), or possibly changing the color of the spinner
to red. This would clue you in that you need to look at the boot log to
see the source of the failure.

I think that it would be a bad idea -- and I don't necessarily think you
were saying this would be a *good* idea -- to do something silly and
cluttering like automatically switching over to text view, or suddenly
showing a listing on screen of failed services, etc.

> For example, lets say that the "normal" time server I point ntp at is down 
> when I boot-up, I would like to be alerted to that fact.  

I would say that's a bad example, but it's probably nit-picky. (You
should be using several known good public time sources so it won't
matter if one is down.) Maybe a better example would be a case where the
DHCP server elsewhere on the LAN is down. I think I get your point,
though, which is that now you know you need to login and (at the very
least) run redhat-logviewer.

> The way that rhgb currently seems to work is that I will know unless I spend 
> the time looking through the boot log every time.  If I am going to do that, 
> then I might as well not run the graphical boot.

Agreed. It would probably also be a good idea for this icon to "persist"
into the [gk]dm login screen, perhaps in the small information window at
the lower right, so that the next person who logs in (and who has
appropriate access rights) can check the status. It would also mean a
visual cue to an admin walking by, or a "regular user" could notice on
their own screen in the morning (say, after a power cycle in the
building or their daily power-on after coffee) and call IT about it.

Any other suggestions?

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE