feedback sought on mdadm sarge->etch upgrade strategy

[martin f krafft]

also sprach maximilian attems <maks at sternwelten.at> [2006.08.17.1708 +0100]:
> i checked this doc, but it has nothing about partial upgrades,
> which is my most current trouble.

Can you please provide me with the missing link? Partial upgrades
can happen in two ways: first mdadm, reboot, then initramfs, or the
other way around.

I think both cases should work fine. I will provide mdrun for etch,
so initramfs can use that even though mdadm was updated. If
initramfs is updated first, the mdrun hook takes over.

> initramfs-tools 0.74 reverts to use mdrun in that case,
> haven't yet added that fine root detection stuff..

There is code here:

  svn://svn.debian.org/pkg-mdadm/mdadm/trunk/debian/mdadm.config

search for ROOTRAIDDEV

> the /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf generated form a sarge install
> is potentialy suspicious, as nothing relied on it.

I am converging on making it required. This means

  - adding a note to the release notes
  - adding a massively big NEWS entry, a pointer in the changelog
    and a mention in the README
  - if the file appears unchanged from the sarge install, just
    replace it.
  - if the file has been changed, offer to replace the file with an
    automatically generated one (using ucf probably).

I may also require the user to delete
/var/lib/mdadm/UPGRADE-SENTINEL before switching the initramfs over
from the mdrun code you provide.

> also there seem to have been a kernel bug in the sarge time where
> _all_ md raid got the same UUID, saw this in some installs here in
> the institute.

I never saw this.

-- 
 .''`.     martin f. krafft <madduck at debian.org>
: :'  :    proud Debian developer and author: http://debiansystem.info
`. `'`
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing a system
 
"fools ignore complexity. pragmatics suffer it.
 some can avoid it. geniuses remove it."
                                                      -- alan perlis
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