[X-Unix] please sign petition (apple to fix diskutil bug)

[David Ledger]

>From: Kristofer Widholm <kit at brokenhill.net>
>The main point here is that diskutil used to work in single user
>mode. It worked without any modification of rc files etc, up until
>Panther was introduced.

That is why I think it might be due to the lack of username services. 
Jaguar had user data available in /etc/passwd (or passwd.master - 
something like that).  Panther doesn't.  It relies on database 
services, which have to be running.

>It has been acknowledged as a bug by Apple, and it should be fixed.
>Tinkering with the startup sequence is an invitation to disaster in a
>distributed application like AppleJack that is intended to be able to
>"just work" no matter who downloads it and installs it on their
>computer.

It looks like a bug in design (no passwd file or equivalent) rather 
than a bug in any specific program.

>I have wanted to avoid "hacking" the standard OS, for two reasons: 1)
>Simplicity: I don't want to have to write an installer that has to be
>able to accurately and carefully modify rc files regardless of what
>prior modifications there might be there. That's a nightmare.
>However, asking the average user to make these modifications by hand
>is too much to ask from a utility that's supposed to help, not
>hinder. 2) Security: I just don't feel 100% confident that I wouldn't
>be opening up a problem by changing the boot sequence, etc.

There are many times I've wished OSX were more conventional; that it 
had a passwd file etc; that it used conventional hierarchical volume 
mounts rather than in /Volumes; ... .  I have no problem with Bsd / 
SysV differences, it's the OSX only bits I dislike.  If I had time, 
I'd like to un-hack a copy of OSX back to normality.

I certainly wouldn't even modify the rc files without a lot of 
checking, and then not on my every-day use copy.  They've added all 
that stuff to make sure automatically that services start in the 
right order, but the result is far more complex than just re-ordering 
things in a file, or changing the numeric parts of filenames.  You 
still need to fully understand the interactions before configuring 
the OSX method just as with the normal ways.  I don't see any gain 
but some loss.

>I would love to hear the input from the lists you are a part of.
>Interesting (if abusive) conversation.

-- 
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
Chair of HPUX SysAdmin SIG of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
dledger at ivdcs.co.uk
www.ivdcs.co.uk