Comment 44 for bug 428435

Peter Matulis [2009-10-21 0:30 -0000]:
> Is it too dangerous to incorporate the intelligence of your Python
> script into karmic's cryptsetup?

I'm not sure it is a good idea to attempt the conversion on the fly
while the file system is being mounted (i. e. during dist-upgrade).

I think what we should do here is:

 * Detect the situation in initramfs/during boot, when file systems
   fail to mount due to this. If so, print an error message with
   instructions.

 * Ship this Python script on the live CD.

 * The instructions should briefly explain what went wrong, and ask
   the user to run a live system and that script.

That would be a safe, but admittedly clumsy first step to get from
"WTH??" to "ugh, complicated, but I know what to do".

A more advanced solution would be to translate/reduce the Pythons
script into a very small shell script which only uses blkid and dd
(and other tools available in the initramfs), then the initramfs could
auto-repair the file systems before mounting them. Anyone happens to
be interested in writing such a thing?

Thanks,

Martin
--
Martin Pitt | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com) | Debian Developer (www.debian.org)