[arch-releng] Add failsafe options

[Sven-Hendrik Haase]

On 26 April 2017 at 01:59, Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi via arch-releng <
arch-releng at archlinux.org> wrote:

> On 04/24/17 01:15, Sven-Hendrik Haase wrote:
> > Quite often on some systems I get the problem that the screen stays black
> > when booting an archiso because some driver snatches the display and then
> > doesn't do anything. I think following other distros here would be a cool
> > thing. A failsafe option for BIOS/EFI should be introduced that will for
> > now only add "nomodeset" to the command line.
> >
> > This might help many users who would otherwise be frustrated. It's also
> not
> > quite obvious to find a solution for this on Google.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
>
> Hi,
>
> In my opinion, adding a "failsafe" option is like hidding the video
> issue. In any way, when system is installed, such boot option should be
> present.
> Just adding the documentation in the right place is just sufficient.
> Forcing users to read the proper docs is not bad.
> Also if we call "failsafe" can be confused with unrelated "failsafe"
> initrd.
>
>
>
How about just calling it "nomodeset" like NixOS does? It's a case that at
least I see quite often and I suppose other users suffer the same fate. I
see your point about docs and everything but this is just such a common
thing and many users might already be aware of it that we might want to
provide a convenient way to boot with this option. I agree though that we
certainly shouldn't hide the underlying thing that's going on so calling it
"failsafe" might not be good.