On Fri, Dec 03, 2021 at 04:08:24PM -0500, Nicholas D Steeves wrote: > Control: severity -1 serious > Control: tags = confirmed > > CCing the release team, and CTTE because I don't know who else is > tracking issues related to the usrmerge effort. I've consciously chosen > not to pour gasoline on the flame war by CCing anyone else (nor will I > contact anyone else about the existence of this bug). > > Steps I used to try to reproduce: > > 1. Downloaded debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso 2021-12-03 16:21 408M > 2. Installed to EFI-enabled qemu eg: > kvm -bios /usr/share/ovmf/bios.bin -m 2G \ > -hda debian-separate-usr-sda.raw \ > -cdrom debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso > 3. Guided partitioning with separate /home, then changed the mount point > to /usr. Partition layout is: > sda1: ESP fat32 > sda2: / ext4 > sda3: swap swap > sda4: /usr ext4 > 4. Selected only "Standard System Utilities" > 5. Rebooted > > Result: SUCCESS > > Then, to test the rescue functionality: > > 1. I discovered qemu+OVMF boot order is broken without changing the > command to: kvm -L /usr/share/ovmf/ -m 2G -boot menu=on \ > -hda /scratch/debian-separate-usr-sda.raw \ > -cdrom /scratch/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso > 2. Selected sda2 > 3. Yes, mount /boot/efi > 4. Execute a shell in /dev/sda2 > 5. No usable shell was found on your root file system (/dev/sda2) > 6. Changed virtual terminal > 7. cd /target && ls bin > ls: bin: No such file or directory > > Result: FAILED > Conclusion: This is a usrmerged system, and the rescue system does not > support usermerged systems. > > The options are, as I see them, ranked from least to most work-hours: > > 1. Debian isn't yet ready for usrmerge. Revert to normal system installation. > 2. Reassign to src:rescue, and fix the rescue system. > a) before chrooting, test for the presence of /target/bin/sh > b) if /bin/sh is not found, either emit error to the user and present a > dialogue for selecting /usr partition, or > c) parse /target/etc/fstab, and attempt to mount other partitions > d) b & c will be difficult to implement when attempting to accommodate > the heterogeneity of possible MD, LUKS, and LVM layouts, not to mention > the complications introduced by the possibility of a user-configured > btrfs subvolume name "@usr" on any valid device. Fstab parsing might > make the btrfs case easier with: > i) Display a dialogue selector if a btrfs partition is detected > The dialogue will list all detected subvolumes > ii) If the user cannot find a subvolume for "@usr", then > iii) Allow the user to escape to the partition selection screen, and > iv) Unmount the partition > 3. Disallow configuring of a mount for "/usr", and *Prominently* declare that > Debian no longer supports separating /usr from /, declare this in *many > places*, and reply to bugs on this topic for many years. I put this one > last because I believe the cost to work-hours is unbounded, and > because I believe there may be a negative social cost associated with > this action. Also, if Fedora/RHEL/SUSE/Ubuntu support a separate /usr > partition, then this action could make Debian look inferior.
FWIW, Debian was the last holdout in still supporting a separate /usr partition amongst major distributions, so that bit is irrelevant... -- w@uter.{be,co.za} wouter@{grep.be,fosdem.org,debian.org}