Just because they're headless doesn't mean that we wouldn't want to see what all is happening when it boots, especially if there's a problem.
For instance we have a lot of HP and Sun x86 infrastructure, and their LOMs can display graphics, but we prefer to use the text console for imaging and troubleshooting. Using a null-modem serial connection is also a common occurrence on severely distressed hosts. As most of us sysadmins know 99% of the time a system will boot without an issue, but it's that 1% of them royally screwing up that we need this type of verbosity. Having it boot sequentially and in text (or the options to do so) is essential for systems a data center. I would think this would be default and am still perplexed on why a graphical splash screen on boot in the server edition is default. I really want Ubuntu Server to flourish and am doing my best to make it a fully supported as major distribution option in our physical and virtual data centers. Unfortunately though this effort is stalled due to not meeting core functionality requirements like this. I've worked around the issue as much as I can but I've hit a wall since this design of upstart/plymouth are core features of the 10.04 release. My boot wish list for Ubuntu Server is this: 1. Grub menu enabled by default with a timeout and "quiet" option removed in order to display kernel messages on boot. 2. Plymouth removed or disabled, printing all boot messages to tty1 in standard text with no framebuffer. 3. Upstart in sysvinit compatibility mode, booting init scripts in order and not relying on event triggers. I don't want it to seem like I'm making demands and am more than willing to help out. I have access to datacenter grade hardware/software (HP and Sun x86 blade centers and single systems, and ESX, XEN, KVM virtual clusters) and am willing to test and develop for these platforms. Micheal Soren Hansen wrote: > On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 10:07:51PM +0100, Egbert Jan van den Bussche wrote: >> I have not tried any of the alpha or beta releases yet. But now I see >> Micheal's horror story. PLEASE do not assume that a server can display ANY >> kind of graphics. All my servers run headles and can only be logged in with >> ssh. If really no other way, I have to bring a keyboard/display to the >> rack... >> Again please let the init messages flow over our consoles. > > Silly question perhaps, but if they're headless why do you care a whole > lot about what's being shown? > > -- Micheal Waltz SMG Unix Infrastructure Qualcomm Inc. Phone: 858-845-6083 Cell: 858-882-7079 -- ubuntu-server mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam
