<tt><font size=2>> From: "Nicolas Mailhot" <nicolas.mailhot@laposte.net></font></tt>
<br><tt><font size=2>> <br>
> Anyway, here is a proposal for an alternative way to deal with the
boot<br>
> sequence.<br>
> <br>
> 1. the bootloader screen is no longer themed with colour backgrounds
but<br>
> is predominantly black and white. Boot is transitioning from a black
shut<br>
> down screen so any colour or grey background is going to flash. (Microsoft<br>
> understood this fact years ago. They killed their old win9x colour<br>
> background boot image)<br>
> <br>
> 2. Bootloader entries are prefixed by a small paragraph of text that<br>
> explains they are safety options that should be used in case of problem.<br>
> If you can localize it so much the better but from a user POW an English<br>
> message is better than no message at all and silent failing. This
is the<br>
> last screen the user will see before boot craps itself, so it needs
to be<br>
> helpful not pretty.<br>
> <br>
> In case input has not been initialised yet it needs to at least provide
a<br>
> pointer to a web page that explains how to rescue the system (letting<br>
> users google is not good. The only thing they will find is messages
from<br>
> other users that had boot problems, which will reinforce their feeling<br>
> Fedora is not reliable).<br>
> <br>
> 3. if you want to cheer it up you can add a fire extinguisher icon
or<br>
> something else that conveys safety measure to an i18n audience.<br>
> <br>
> 4. that is the only theming that should occur. No colour experiments,
no<br>
> Fedora logo, no video mode switches, nothing to distract from the
message<br>
> <br>
> 5. the default wait period is at least 5 seconds, maybe as much as
10.<br>
> <br>
> 6. any successful boot (where actual non automatic user activity occurs<br>
> after the boot, and software shutdown completes) temporarily overrides
the<br>
> wait period and shortens it for the next boot to the minimal value
that<br>
> lets the user react (2-3 s IIRC from the discussion). So a hardware
reset<br>
> or battery pull restores the full default wait. As long as everything
is<br>
> fine users get short boots.<br>
> <br>
> 7. any detected problem, or dangerous operation such as kernel update<br>
> resets the wait time till successful boot occurs again (see 6)<br>
> <br>
> 8. the wait periods are settable in kickstart so vm farm, embedded
people,<br>
> and Lennart can set it to zero if they feel like it. At zero it will
flash<br>
> too fast for users to notice (esp. if the screen is predominantly
black).<br>
> <br>
> 9. after a few releases the wait period default values are reevaluated
by<br>
> FESCO, based on the actual in-the-field observed reliability of the
error<br>
> detection heuristics (ie build the new safety net before removing
the old<br>
> one)<br>
> <br>
> Sincerely,<br>
> <br>
> -- <br>
> Nicolas Mailhot<br>
> <br>
> -- <br>
> devel mailing list<br>
> devel@lists.fedoraproject.org<br>
> </font></tt><a href=https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel><tt><font size=2>https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel</font></tt></a>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">If this could be made to work as described,
I'd be happy with it.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
--<br>
John Florian</font>
<br>