Re: boot banner project

/dev/null <null_at_dnswatch.com> wrote:

>> I think restructuring our userland boot message would be a good start. I'm
>> not talking about the above proposal, even if I think it's nice (but a
>> little bit too terse for me), I'm talking about rethinking the actual
>> (since
>> the new rc system) clutter.
>>
>> The 4.x startup looks structured (it could be improved to be more eye
>> friendly, but the beauty lies in the eye of the beholder), while the 5+
>> one
>> is neither fish nor meat. It's a mixture of the 4.x one with the "Starting
>> xyz" messages from the new system. Since we don't try to keep the new
>> system
>> diff friendly with the NetBSD source anymore, I think we could change it
>> to
>> fit our needs.
>
> Maybe this would be a better place for me to start
> (assuming no objection(s)). I mean, it may turn out
> the large majority of opinion is: boot-banner SUX! So

If root is able to switch the boot-banner on/off, and as long as headless and
serial-console enabled systems behave as usual, nothing should stop you from
doing this project.

> in either case; making what already exists more desirable/
> funcional; seems the best place to start something. As
> opposed to adding to something that might me better polished
> up. What's more, I was thinking; what if the current settings
> ( verbose/ terse ) were expanded and prettified(stylized).
> Example: 3 settings;
>
> 1) no output: black, or blank screen until the prompt/ login.

That's not a good option (from an usability point of view). You need at least
some progress indicator, else an user will ask if the system freezed or not.

> 2) terse:
> a) only dumps warnings
> b) dumps item at succesful load, or else failure message as returned by
> failed object.
>
> 3) verbose:
> a) raw (pretty much the way it is now but unify/ sanitize the messages
> returned - (4.x ify?))
> b) prettified
> (example(s):
>
> mysql <loaded>
>
> or
>
> mysql <message returned upon load/ or load failure>)
>
> both <loaded> or <message> *could* be colorized.

That's too much options IMHO ("less" is "more", you know? ;-) ). You need a
progress indicator in 2), and you need the possibility to report errors in
1), so I think you can reduce it to
a) progress indicator + error output
b) raw (as is, or polished up)
c) nice

But since we don't have an option to shut up the kernel messages on boot, I
think we don't need a).

If you want to proceeed with this, you should move over to the freebsd rc
mailinglist.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
http://www.Leidinger.net  Alexander _at_ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org     netchild _at_ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID = 72077137
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