Public bug reported:
• In my /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose I have about 10'000 lines of
special compose keys defined.
• In my /boot/grub/grub.cfg I have a very complicated special setup for my
various boot configurations, and a 5-sec timout for my EFI-config.
• My /etc/ssh/sshd_config contains a well-balanced configuration
All these files are regularly overridden WITHOUT EVEN A SINGLE WARNING
or ASKING BACK by ubuntu system setups (discover).
I set all of them to read-only by root and no-access for group and other
users, but they still get overridden by every other system update. I
even have a shutdown process in place which should actually make sure
that changes to these files are reverted by writing a backup copy over
any newly installed override — unfortunately, everything I did to run
either a custom shutdown process or a startup process with systemd
turned out to not work and be a nightmare to make work.
How somebody could be as bold as to override vital configuration files
like this without even asking for consent is one of the strange
miracles in this world which I'll probably never understand. However,
if "ubuntu" is really what it translates to, it should take a little bit
more care about pre-existing configurations on systems on which it is
set up and running well — until one system update suddenly jeopardizes
the functioning of the entire system. I'm pretty sure these are not the
only configuration files which are carelessly just overridden. They're
just the ones every other update breaks my system and inflinges on my
the costs of hours of research until I find out that — of course — it
was an overridden critical system configuration again. The really mean
thing is that you don't notice anything when you run the update … only
next time you start your system and of course are not aware anymore that
you did a system update, the new (absolutely wrong and/or insufficent)
settings are in place and shoot you in the leg.
Take an example from gentoo's etc-update feature which lets you merge
new configuration files with pre-existing ones using a diff3-update. I
went away from gentoo for other reasons, but I always praised that
feature.
Please make sure immediately that critical configuration files do not
get overridden if they are non-writable by root, and then gradually
introduce a system that merges changes to configuration files with the
current situation on the target system. Or at least present the configs
that would be changed in a particular directory, so that anybody who is
interested in preserving local settings could merge them in a suitable
way.
Thanks
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-53.60-generic 5.8.18
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-53-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu50.7
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Thu May 27 18:48:15 2021
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: groovy
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
NVIDIA Corporation TU117GLM [Quadro T1000 Mobile] [10de:1fb9] (rev a1)
(prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Lenovo TU117GLM [Quadro T1000 Mobile] [17aa:2297]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-01-15 (132 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Release amd64 (20201022)
MachineType: LENOVO 20QQS0KL13
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-53-generic
root=UUID=35cef147-e021-4bdd-b8db-31a3192c8a6a ro rootflags=subvol=@ quiet
splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 06/04/2020
dmi.bios.release: 1.23
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N2NET38W (1.23 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20QQS0KL13
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40697 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ZF211710
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.ec.firmware.release: 1.14
dmi.modalias:
dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN2NET38W(1.23):bd06/04/2020:br1.23:efr1.14:svnLENOVO:pn20QQS0KL13:pvrThinkPadP53:rvnLENOVO:rn20QQS0KL13:rvrSDK0J40697WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.family: ThinkPad P53
dmi.product.name: 20QQS0KL13
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20QQ_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad P53
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad P53
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.102-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.2.6-0ubuntu0.20.10.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1.3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel
2:2.99.917+git20200714-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1
** Affects: ubuntu
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug groovy kubuntu ubuntu
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1929854
Title:
Vital and critical configuration files get overridden by system
updates without warning
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