Additional Control Over Boot in Mindi Configuration

[Matthew Ross]

I have run into a scenario where it would be useful to have a little more control over how recovery media boots. In particular, the boot loader timeout and default boot option.

For my purposes, it would be useful to have restoration media timeout quickly and boot into expert mode as a default. Once booted the user will be able to select backups from library disk to restore from via a script (that eventually call on mondorestore).

Using mindi versus mondo would be an option to get expert working as the default but it would require that I handle the generation of CD/DVD media externally, something which mondo does nicely already.

The changes required to implement this are minimal.

Establish globals prior sourcing mindi.conf:

MINDI_ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS="..." 
MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION=""
MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT=""

in MakeBootConfFile, handle the mindi.conf default option and timeout for mondoarchive non-CDRECOVERY only:

MakeBootConfFile()
{
    ...
    # Compute which default option to boot from
    ...
    elif [ _"$MONDO_SHARE" != _"" ]; then
        if [ -e "$MINDI_TMP/NETFS-DEV" ]; then
            echo -en "default${sep}iso\n"
        elif [ "$MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION" != "" ]; then
            LogIt "Overriding default boot option: $MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION"
            echo -en "default${sep}${MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION}\n"
        else
            echo -en "default${sep}interactive\n"
        fi
    else
    ....
    # Handle timeout
    if [ "$CDRECOVERY" == "yes" ]; then
        echo -en "timeout${sep}1000\n"
    elif [ "$MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT" != "" ]; then
        LogIt "Overriding boot timeout: $MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT"
        echo -en "timeout${sep}${MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT}\n"
    else
        echo -en "timeout${sep}300\n"
    fi
    ....
}

A small change but one that would be useful.

[Matthew Ross]

Better yet ...

MINDI_ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS="..." 
MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION="interactive"
MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT=300

and ...

MakeBootConfFile()
{
    ...
    # Compute which default option to boot from
    ...
    elif [ _"$MONDO_SHARE" != _"" ]; then
        if [ -e "$MINDI_TMP/NETFS-DEV" ]; then
            echo -en "default${sep}iso\n"
        else
            echo -en "default${sep}${MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION}\n"
        fi
    else
    ....
    # Handle timeout
    if [ "$CDRECOVERY" == "yes" ]; then
        echo -en "timeout${sep}1000\n"
    else
        echo -en "timeout${sep}${MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT}\n"
    fi
    ....
}

Perhaps with a check to validate the option.

[Matthew Ross]

Additionally, it can be difficult to determine which options in mindi are intended to be overridden by mindi.conf. It would be nice if this were more obvious and perhaps if there was an option to generate a default config.

I have supplied version 2.1.3-r3026 with the functionality included to do so, along with the changes from the original boot option enhancements. Calling "mindi --makemindiconfig output.conf" will generate a config (output.conf) with the config options and their default values (as defined in mindi). I was not 100% sure on what all configuration options should be so I took a best guess (on the comments too).

Perhaps a little out of scope for this ticket but I believe it would be useful. Realistically, it would probably be best to include a validation function to check that configuration option were set within bounds.

[Matthew Ross]

mindi with additional boot configuration options and default configuration generation

[Matthew Ross]

example configuration generated by mindi.648

[Bruno Cornec]

Replying to msross:

Better yet ...

MINDI_ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS="..." 
MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION="interactive"
MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT=300

and ...

MakeBootConfFile()
{
    ...
    # Compute which default option to boot from
    ...
    elif [ _"$MONDO_SHARE" != _"" ]; then
        if [ -e "$MINDI_TMP/NETFS-DEV" ]; then
            echo -en "default${sep}iso\n"
        else
            echo -en "default${sep}${MINDI_DEFAULT_BOOT_OPTION}\n"
        fi
    else
    ....
    # Handle timeout
    if [ "$CDRECOVERY" == "yes" ]; then
        echo -en "timeout${sep}1000\n"
    else
        echo -en "timeout${sep}${MINDI_BOOT_TIMEOUT}\n"
    fi
    ....
}

Perhaps with a check to validate the option.

Of we let users with good conf file, I'm assuming that when they will change it they know what they do. So for now seems sufficient.

I've added that modification to rev [3053]

[Bruno Cornec]

Replying to msross:

Additionally, it can be difficult to determine which options in mindi are intended to be overridden by mindi.conf. It would be nice if this were more obvious and perhaps if there was an option to generate a default config.

I have supplied version 2.1.3-r3026 with the functionality included to do so, along with the changes from the original boot option enhancements. Calling "mindi --makemindiconfig output.conf" will generate a config (output.conf) with the config options and their default values (as defined in mindi). I was not 100% sure on what all configuration options should be so I took a best guess (on the comments too).

Perhaps a little out of scope for this ticket but I believe it would be useful. Realistically, it would probably be best to include a validation function to check that configuration option were set within bounds.

Don't want to do too much with that version while I'm trying to rewrite stuff in perl with a different more broad approach. However, I'm still interested by your idea. Instead of a full file, could you provide a patch vs SVN so it would be easier for see what you propose, check and incorporate it ? TIA.

[Matthew Ross]

Replying to bruno:

Replying to msross:

Additionally, it can be difficult to determine which options in mindi are intended to be overridden by mindi.conf. It would be nice if this were more obvious and perhaps if there was an option to generate a default config.

I have supplied version 2.1.3-r3026 with the functionality included to do so, along with the changes from the original boot option enhancements. Calling "mindi --makemindiconfig output.conf" will generate a config (output.conf) with the config options and their default values (as defined in mindi). I was not 100% sure on what all configuration options should be so I took a best guess (on the comments too).

Perhaps a little out of scope for this ticket but I believe it would be useful. Realistically, it would probably be best to include a validation function to check that configuration option were set within bounds.

Don't want to do too much with that version while I'm trying to rewrite stuff in perl with a different more broad approach. However, I'm still interested by your idea. Instead of a full file, could you provide a patch vs SVN so it would be easier for see what you propose, check and incorporate it ? TIA.

Certainly I can write up the changes against again the latest 3.0 mindi in the repo and post on this ticket (don't think I would have any commit permissions on the repo)? Will look at tomorrow to submit, in the middle of changing devel boxes.