Bug 241649
Summary: | [smolt] smolt-firstboot denaturates its own statistics about default runlevel | ||
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Product: | [Fedora] Fedora | Reporter: | Răzvan Sandu <rsandu2004> |
Component: | smolt | Assignee: | Mike McGrath <mmcgrath> |
Status: | CLOSED WONTFIX | QA Contact: | Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa> |
Severity: | medium | Docs Contact: | |
Priority: | medium | ||
Version: | 11 | CC: | dcantrell, jonstanley, triage |
Target Milestone: | --- | ||
Target Release: | --- | ||
Hardware: | All | ||
OS: | Linux | ||
URL: | http://smolt.fedoraproject.org/stats | ||
Whiteboard: | bzcl34nup | ||
Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | Bug Fix | |
Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |
Clone Of: | Environment: | ||
Last Closed: | 2010-06-28 10:24:57 UTC | Type: | --- |
Regression: | --- | Mount Type: | --- |
Documentation: | --- | CRM: | |
Verified Versions: | Category: | --- | |
oVirt Team: | --- | RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host: | |
Cloudforms Team: | --- | Target Upstream Version: | |
Embargoed: |
Description
Răzvan Sandu
2007-05-29 11:33:59 UTC
Interesting.... Hmm, actually the default runlevel is pulled directly out of whatever is set in /etc/inittab (not what runlevel its currently at). However, those installing in runlevel 3 will never see smolt get run and will have to set it manually. One possible saving grace is that those who enable smolt also have enabled a monthly check in, so on updates, they will get updated. This, however, still leans heavy to the runlevel 5 side as those installing via kickstart or runlevel3 (or just not installing firstboot) will never be presented with the opportunity to enable smolt. The text version of firstboot does not include a firstboot module so I can add that and it will help. Hello, Please don't forget that the /etc/inittab indicates runlevel 5 after every canonical install of F7, at first boot, even the administrator manually changes to 3 a few seconds afterwards, during the initial configuration... Regards, Răzvan Presently (June 10, 2007), the smolt statistics shows that 96.2% of the registered systems (35279 total) are in default runlevel 5, compared to 3,7% in runlevel 3. IMHO, this seems totally unnatural, at least for me. Every network administrator I know (that mostly use Fedora for servers, not for desktops) boot in default runlevel 3, both for conserving system resources and for obtaining flexibility. I will wait for a month after Fedora 7's official release date, to see if figures begin to change slightly... ;-) Răzvan The problem is that most people running in runlevel 3 are experienced Linux admins and as such many of them probably use kickstart scripts or maybe even yum to do the update. In both of those examples smolt does not get installed or run. All we can do is educate users to install and add it to their kickstart scripts. Forcing smolt to run would be inappropriate I think. Hello, (following comment #4) ...OR a more simple scenario: Some user (experienced admin or average user) installs Fedora from CD. In 99% situations, they use graphical installation in English language. After restart, computer has default runlevel 5 in /etc/inittab. User runs smolt at firstboot, registering its workstation as using runlevel 5, kernel 3194 present on CD and English language. User logs in as root and manually modifies /etc/inittab to runlevel 3, language to what he desires and perform kernel upgrades via yum. Now there are 2 possible cases: - user enables monthly smolt checking - his workstation will be registered as running in runlevel 3, correct language and other kernel, but after a month delay, at best; - user does not enable monthly smolt checking - the workstation never gets registered as running in with new parameters. ... OR another scenatio, too: User runs Fedora from LiveCD, for hardware testing, planning a future runlevel 3 installation (I personally boot many machines from Live CD, just to send their hardware profile to smolt server). Usually one does not use another language than default English. If user doesn't manually change default runlevel in /etc/inittab, workstation gets registered with runlevel 5, English language and the 3194 kernel which is present on LiveCD. This automatically denaturates statistics. Possible solution: When smolt is run from firstboot, for the first time, register all hardware data *except* default runlevel, kernel version and language used. Regards, Răzvan So you're suggesting we don't store runlevel, kernel or language at all? Hello, My suggestion is that we don't store runlevel, kernel or language *when smolt is run for the first time, from firstboot*. We store just hardware data and the other few details. Regards, Răzvan Based on the date this bug was created, it appears to have been reported against rawhide during the development of a Fedora release that is no longer maintained. In order to refocus our efforts as a project we are flagging all of the open bugs for releases which are no longer maintained. If this bug remains in NEEDINFO thirty (30) days from now, we will automatically close it. If you can reproduce this bug in a maintained Fedora version (7, 8, or rawhide), please change this bug to the respective version and change the status to ASSIGNED. (If you're unable to change the bug's version or status, add a comment to the bug and someone will change it for you.) Thanks for your help, and we apologize again that we haven't handled these issues to this point. The process we're following is outlined here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/F9CleanUp We will be following the process here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping to ensure this doesn't happen again. I think this "bug" is still present and unaddresed today (Fedora 8 as of April 4th, 2008), because: - it's hard to believe that only 2% of the users run Fedora in runlevel 3, as you may see in the present smolt statistics; - smolt-firstboot still reports kernel version, language and default runlevel *at boot*, before any administrator had a chance to set them manually or perform online updates. Regards, Răzvan Well, I'll let Mike comment on this (again), but smolt does have a fairly low penetration among systems that are running in runlevel 3. This is for the reasons noted above - a kickstart installation will never run firstboot, therefore the user will never be given an opportunity to enable smolt, and as of right now in rawhide, there is no firstboot TUI anyway, so we can't even enable it there. Those that have enabled however, as noted, have also enabled the monthly checkin, therefore any changes to those systems would be reflected at the first of the month. My personal guess is that very few server installations of Fedroa will ever be installed in a graphical mode to enable smolt. I'm tempted to close this NOTABUG since it's really a fundamental design limitation of smolt, but I'll let Mike make that call. I believe that the latest numbers that I've seen indicate that smolt is only actually enabled on about 10% of systems - but don't quote me on that one :) @Jon (comment #10) Maybe you're right - but I don't understand why you asimilate systems running in rulevel 3 with kickstart installations, as a must. Personally, I am running a network of more than 1000 computers and all are installed by hand, from DVD. All run in runlevel 3 and all have smolt enabled by default. As a matter of fact, I've made some lobby for Ubuntu developers to adopt smolt too, so the statistics be unified. I also suggested that statistics provided by smolt and by the LinuxCounter machine-update script should be integrated, through cooperation (please see bug #433105). Regards, Răzvan I'm sorry, I didn't mean to equate runlevel3 with kickstart only - and I definitely agree that smolt should be more widespread than just Fedora, just mentioning that there are issues with any sort of opt-in automated data collection such as this, because there are quite common ways of installation that would result in systems being excluded. As for the stats being bogus, anything that changes via admin intervention will show up in the next months checkin. And as for your 1000 systems deployed via DVD - you might wanna look into kickstart :) It will make your life easier :) Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA. More information and reason for this action is here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping This message is a reminder that Fedora 9 is nearing its end of life. Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 9. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '9'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 9's end of life. Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 9 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version, please add a comment here and someone will do it for you. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete. The process we are following is described here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping Moving release, valid bug and I still have no idea how to fix it. Hello, My two cents: ;-) The question would be if is there a way to make smolt behave *differently* when it is run by firstboot, as oposed to "normal" behaviour (when it is run by hand or by nightly cron). If such a possibility exists, then please exclude the following data when smolt is run by firstboot (as suggested in comment #7): - default runlevel - kernel version - system default language The idea is that a guy installing Fedora in graphical mode will see and allow smolt to run by cron, collecting a minimal set of data at first run. Immediately after installation, if he chooses to switch to default runlevel 3, to personalise the system default language or to upgrade the kernel, these changes will only be reported in subsequent runs of smolt (*after* they are crafted by hand, not with the initial default values). This way we will get a more balanced idea of what systems really are like. Regards, Răzvan This message is a reminder that Fedora 11 is nearing its end of life. Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 11. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '11'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 11's end of life. Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 11 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version, please add a comment here and someone will do it for you. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete. The process we are following is described here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping Fedora 11 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2010-06-25. Fedora 11 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed. |