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Date:      Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:37:46 -0700
From:      Devin Teske <devin.teske@fisglobal.com>
To:        Eugene Grosbein <egrosbein@rdtc.ru>
Cc:        Freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org>, Ron McDowell <rcm@fuzzwad.org>
Subject:   Re: [CFT] Need Testers for: sysutils/bsdconfig
Message-ID:  <F34D40AA-3AE4-4A1F-B521-CEC2A06ABC79@fisglobal.com>
In-Reply-To: <4FE419CD.60708@rdtc.ru>
References:  <2322BE6D-24A8-4F4A-84B2-4DFE33BCA65B@fisglobal.com> <4FE3EB9D.9070509@fuzzwad.org> <4FE419CD.60708@rdtc.ru>

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On Jun 22, 2012, at 12:07 AM, Eugene Grosbein wrote:

> 22.06.2012 10:50, Ron McDowell =D0=C9=DB=C5=D4:
>=20
>>> Again, thank you very much for testing this new software.
>>> P.S. Due to the large codebase comprising bsdconfig, ample precautions =
should be taken. I've not noticed any negative behavior in months of usage,=
 but just be warned.
>>>=20
>>> P.P.S. I don't think on subscribed to -stable@, so include me in your r=
eplies.
>> I'm one of the coauthors of this code, and I am here on -stable.  As=20
>> stated, this port will only run on 9.0-RELEASE and later.
>>=20
>> Please give it a try!  Thanks!
>=20
> I've tried it on installed 9.0-STABLE system.

First, thank you for testing!


> 1. At the moment, the documentation does not install:
>=20
> Could not install package en-freebsd-doc (pkg_add: unable to fetch
> 'ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-9-stable/Latest/e=
n-freebsd-doc.tbz'
> by URL)
>=20

Ok. Thx.

A PR should be filed against bsdinstall (since bsdconfig is simply linking =
to "bsdinstall docsinstall" for that menu item and is not actually responsi=
ble for the bug).


> 2. For system running single gmirror gm0 consisting of 2 whole disks
> ada0 and ada1, 'Label allocated disk partitions' offers
> only ada0 and ada1 for disklabel editor and not gm0.
> And disklabel editor shows empty list of partitions.
>=20

Ok, Thx.

This too is not part of bsdconfig, but is linked to sade(8).

NOTE: "Documentation Installation" and "Disk Partition/Label" are the only =
two modules that are pointed to other tools (the former linked to "bsdinsta=
ll docsinstall" and the latter linked to "sade").

The goal for this is to replace sade (which is not geom compatible) with a =
new tool.

This is on the community's to-do list.


> 3. Similar for FDISK Partition Editor (ada0/ada1 and not gm0 for choise),
> but Partition Editor presents whole disk space as 'unused'
>=20
> Note that current SATA disk prices and quality offers no choice for serve=
rs
> other that some kind of RAID.
>=20

Again, this is because sade(8) is not geom compatible.


> 4. Networking Devices configuration presents lagg0 device as <unknown net=
work interface type>.
> It should provide descriptive string like 'Link aggregation/failover'.
>=20

It's on my to-do list to change the way descriptions are calculated.

Currently, I've got a static hard-coded list of descriptions. Someone recom=
mended that there was a way to get this information from sysctl.


> 5. Same for vlan16. For vlan9 is shows right 'IEEE 802.1Q VLAN network in=
terface'.
> It should work same way for vlan1-vlan4095 interfaces at least.
>=20

I'd like to know if the sysctl MIB's for describing network interfaces is r=
eliable. Maybe I'll keep the static list as a fallback. But yes, you're abs=
olutely right -- I should have supported up to 5 digits even (ifconfig has =
internal limits of 16-bit unsigned integer for the interface instance-numbe=
r).


> 6. Same for ipfw0 pseudo-interface.
>=20

Curious what sysctl says about it.


> 7. Networking Devices configuration does not allow to configure any inter=
face
> while there are mounted NFS volumes. Should present a warning only, not d=
isallow the operation.

Did I completely disallow it? I'll have to re-check -- I thought that I had=
 made it so that you could view/edit the configuration but that the warning=
 says that changes will not become effective until you either reboot or vis=
it the menu again when no NFS mounts are active.


> For example, it should be possible to configure new vlan interface while =
NFS mount
> uses another clan.
>=20

Do you know of a handy way of determining which NFS mount is using which ne=
twork interface? And further, is there a handy way of traversing the route =
path to determine that one interface isn't required as an intermediary tran=
sit device? (meaning: can one truly ever know that making a new configurati=
on active on any interface could not potentially drop your entire machine f=
rom the net with hung NFS mounts?)

Many months of testing in the lab produced no less than 6 edge-cases where =
-- if a network link or route is modified when NFS mounts are active -- the=
 machine can enter an unstable/unusable state.

So we decided to err on the side of caution when it came to allowing settin=
gs to be made-active when NFS mounts are active.

I'm not against improving the code, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be saf=
er to stick to disallowing any/all changes from being made-active (while al=
lowing viewing/editing without making-active) when NFS mounts are active.

NOTE: There are other safe-guards too. For example, if you're logged in via=
 SSH and using X11 forwarding while passing the "-X" flag (to use Xdialog(1=
)), you are disallowed from making a new hostname active (you can change th=
e hostname, but not make it active) because that would cause the very next =
iteration of Xdialog(1) to fail due to a surreptitious X authority revocati=
on based on the hostname-change in mid-session.


> 8. In DNS Nameserver Configuration, it's not clear that one, in fact,
> can remove unneeded DNS server through two-step procedure - first try to =
edit,
> then clear the address. It should be more obvious at first.
>=20

Can you have a look at "bsdconfig startup_rcconf" and see if that's a bette=
r way to go about the deletion-process?

Or perhaps you're just advocating a helpful message in the text above the m=
enu list that explains how to delete the item? (least amount of work)


> That's enough for this time :-)
>=20

Thank you again for testing!
--=20
Cheers,
Devin

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