Subject: console-common: warning about ignoring boot-time keymaps goes by too fast
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 17:27:10 +0100
Package: console-common
Version: 0.7
I did a dist-upgrade from stable to testing. I use debconf's text
interface. console-common asks
What policy do you want to apply regarding keymaps ? [s]
to which I say 'd' (don't touch). console-common then displays a warning:
===begin===
A boot-time keymap in an old ___location is about to be ignored.
You have asked the keymap configuration tool not to touch an existing keymap you installed, or you asked for higher-priority
questions only to be asked and the tool decided not to mess with your existing setup.
However, you have file(s) that were recognized as boot-time keymaps by older versions of the console utilities, either in
/etc/kbd/ or in /etc/console-tools/, named default.kmap(.gz) and these are now ignored.
If you wish that one of them takes effect on next reboot, you will have to move it to /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz manually.
===endit===
but does not pause once it has done so. Therefore the upgrade proceeds and
the warning flashes past off the top of the screen. I'd never have seen it
if I hadn't been logging the whole upgrade to a text file.
Peter Maydell
Subject: Re: Processed: debconf bug in the text frontend
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 15:06:00 -0400
retitle 101800 text frontend doesn't pause at end
thanks
Let me outline why this problem exists: The text frontend pauses each
time it has output a screenfull of text. If a message is the last thing
displayed, and it does not take up a whole screenfull, the frontend
can't tell what's going to happen next. This might be part of a large
dpkg run, which will scroll the message off the screen unread. If so it
would be best to pause before debconf exits. Or this might be a short
run, which will return the user to the prompt soon (or immediatly).
Pausing then is quite annoying, when you see:
blab blah blah blah
[More]
prompt#
I actually tried this when I first noticed the problem least year and it
was IMHO too annoying to make up for the possibility that a message
might scroll by unread. I can't think of a good solution to this.
--
see shy jo
On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 02:19:13PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:
> Frank Küster wrote:
> > as the last thing in debian/config. Is this a bug in the manpage, or
> > rather an error by me?
>
> It's a bug in debconf (#101800) with no particularly good solution.
> Please don't try to work around it.
IMO the frontend should pause, doing the latter in your description.
Or this might be a short run, which will return the user to the prompt soon
(or immediatly). Pausing then is quite annoying, when you see:
blab blah blah blah
[More]
prompt#
I think this is only really annoying if the "blah blah blah" message wasn't
really that important in the first place, in which case it shouldn't be a
debconf note anyway, and the user's annoyance should be expressed to the
corresponding package maintainer with a bug report.
Alternatively, couldn't you have the readline frontend produce a prompt at
the end of any displayed note, such as:
Press Enter to acknowledge this message.
?
That would render more explicit the idea that we're not pausing because we
think the screen has filled, but because we want the user to indicate that
he/she has seen the important message we have given him/her.
Please let me know if I am not understanding the issues here.
(I do realize that my suggestion does not steer in the direction of
keystroke minimization, which is a laudable goal of yours -- but I would
think people seeking to minimize keystrokes should be using the
noninteractive frontend, not readline.)
--
G. Branden Robinson |
Debian GNU/Linux | Ab abusu ad usum non valet
[email protected] | consequentia.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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