Ubuntu
sysstat package

Confusing debconf message when upgrading

Bug #342655 reported by Thomas Folz-Donahue on 2009-03-14

This bug affects 1 person

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	sysstat (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Wishlist	Unassigned

Bug Description

I ran update-manager to upgrade from Intrepid to Jaunty. Apparently, messages that look good in normal debconf look funny in update-manager.

Related branches

lp:debian/experimental/sysstat

lp:debian/sysstat

lp:ubuntu/precise/sysstat

Revision history for this message

Thomas Folz-Donahue (eigenlambda) wrote on 2009-03-14:

screenshot of the message Edit (76.1 KiB, image/png)

Revision history for this message

Jaime Frutos Morales (acidborg) wrote on 2009-03-15:

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I'm sorry, but I don't see why these messages look funny. The look normal to me. Marking this bug as invalid.

Changed in sysstat:
assignee:	nobody → acidborg
status:	New → Invalid

Revision history for this message

Thomas Folz-Donahue (eigenlambda) wrote on 2009-03-15: Re: [Bug 342655] Re: Confusing debconf message when upgrading

On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Jaime Frutos Morales
<email address hidden> wrote:
> I'm sorry, but I don't see why these messages look funny.
> The look normal to me. Marking this bug as invalid.

The checkbox says "Do you want post-installation script to remove
these data files?". I thought that checkboxes are supposed to have
statements next to them, not questions. I had to think about what
would happen if I clicked the check button. Also, critical
information as to what the checkbox's question means is shown after
you click the help button.

I know this is graphical debconf, but I don't think it's being done
very well. This bug isn't very important, but I think the behavior
shown is suboptimal. It would be better if a yes/no question had
buttons for yes and no and the question was more descriptive, i.e.
"Remove files in /var/log/sysstat?".

~thomas
--
cartwheel ^(^_^)> v(.-.)v <(^_^)^

Jaime Frutos Morales (acidborg) on 2009-03-16

Changed in sysstat:
assignee:	acidborg → nobody
status:	Invalid → New

Revision history for this message

Marius Gedminas (mgedmin) wrote on 2009-04-05:

I upgraded to Jaunty today and was confused by the systat question dialog too.

What a user sees is this:

Configuring sysstat

[ ] Do you want post-installation script to remove these data files? [ Help ]

The first reaction is "huh? what files?". The second reaction is to try the [ Help ] button, which, thankfully, explains everything.

I would recommend this question to be rephrased to be understandable without reading the help message first. E.g.
"Remove daily data statistics files from /var/log/sysstat/ (needed to make sar work)?"

Revision history for this message

Marius Gedminas (mgedmin) wrote on 2009-04-05:

It would be even better if sysstat didn't ask anything and just moved the obsolete data files to /var/log/sysstat.old, and added a notice in NEWS.Debian explaining why.

Best, of course, would be to do the above (for backup purposes) *and* convert the data files into the new format automatically.

Thierry Carrez (ttx) on 2009-04-06

Changed in sysstat (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2011-10-17:

This bug was fixed in the package sysstat - 10.0.2-1

---------------
sysstat (10.0.2-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream (stable) release.
  * debian/control: Set architecture to linux-any (closes: #619949).
  * The debconf message has already been ixed in 8.1.8-2, (LP: #342655).
-- Ubuntu Archive Auto-Sync <email address hidden> Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:37:20 +0000