Package: kexec-tools
Version: 2.0.1
Installing kexec-tools on a machine defaults it to rebooting via kexec:
/etc/default/kexec, as written out in the postinst, defaults to
LOAD_KEXEC=true.
This should not be the default, for several reasons. One big one is that
this prevents you from rebooting into another OS (my laptop is dual-boot
Debian and Windows), another kernel, or the BIOS, without shutting down
and restarting the machine. Another is that, with recent graphics drivers,
kexec doesn't work as well as you hope to show boot messages -- you
usually just get graphics corruption until X starts back up again.
kexec-tools is still very useful if it doesn't default to LOAD_KEXEC=true.
My university's configuration runs "kexec -l" followed by "reboot" in
certain cases, e.g., if we need to reboot a machine to cleanly end user
processes. But with LOAD_KEXEC=false, an explicit reboot still does a
hardware reboot, so staff can reinstall the machine, etc.
If a user wants to always reboot with kexec, they can configure that, but
merely installing the package should not change their reboot
configuration. (Our machine-cleanup scripts Depend: kexec-tools, for
instance -- it should be safe for kexec-tools to be automatically
installed.)
Ubuntu has patched this package to default to LOAD_KEXEC=false; please see
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kexec-tools/+bug/251242
for more information and rationale on why it should be set to false.
Thanks,
--
Geoffrey Thomas
geo...@mit.edu
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