[Fedora-livecd-list] Re: Q: Should the CD automatically look at floppy, usb or hdd for saved session/override data?

[Dirk Westfal]

Hi, 

On Saturday 16 July 2005 13:51, you wrote:
> Am Samstag, den 16.07.2005, 19:47 +0200 schrieb Thorsten Leemhuis:
..
> > > >Q: Should the CD automatically look at floppy, usb or hdd for saved
> > > session/override data?
> > > Imho: yes - one of the functions most requested by my users: if a usb
> > > device with an file like 'livecd-<usrname>' is present, it should be
> > > extracted just after login in. (and revers on logoff)
> >
> > This should be a config *and* runtime-option. If someone wants to ship a
> > Knoppix like Rescue-CD/DVD based on Fedora you don't want it to touch
> > all filesystems. It could do damage to those (even if it is mounted ro
> > only -- there *could* be a old 'livecd-<usrname>' file that was
> > forgotten)

Ack. 
My livecd systems never ever touch a harddisk by themself ....  :) 
That`s the 'big red line' to step over ... and why i specifically wrote 'usb 
device'  which is more like a floppy (well, there might be a prob with 
external usb-hdd`s, but luckily those aren`t that common ...) 
 
Access to harddisk should never be enabled by default - autodetection/usage of 
usb storage: well - this seemed to be a decent way to allow auto-save/restore 
while minimizing the risk of corrupting user data.  

The problem with old/obsolete profiles isn`t easely solveable - but if it`s 
read from a ro-mounted media, this shouldn`t be  much of a problem.
At least distinguishing between different livecd versions could be done using 
a 'track' file. 

A combination of bootprompt argument, sysv service (toggled by config option 
set at buildtime) and an icon (for the gui version) seems to be ideal, 
perhaps with also 'tagging' the storage device as profile/session media. 

> Private followup to myself:
>
> Wir hatten angeblich (sagte mir ein Kollege) mit einem Knoppix in der
> c't mal ein paar solche Fälle, wo Knoppix ungewollt Dateisysteme
> mountete, die eigentlich gerade repariert werden sollten. Das hat dann
> wohl die schon bestehenden Probleme mit dem Dateisystem noch
> verschlimmert...

Yupp - habe aehnliches gehoert.
Das ist so eine Knoppixangewohnheit die ich absolut nicht leiden kann: alles 
mounten was bei drei nicht auf den Baeumen ist UND auch gleich noch ein 
Swapfile anlegen. 
 
Die Festplatte eines Anwenders darf man nur dann anfassen, wenn dieser es 
ausdruecklich wuenscht und eigenhaendig anfordert. 
Einen Usbstoepsel kann der Anwender erheblich besser kontrollieren. 

Alles andere ist gefaehrlich (und imho ziemlich unanstaendig).


Dirk