[ConsoleKit] extend ConsoleKit to support fast reboot on OpenSolaris x86

[David Zeuthen]

On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Brian Cameron<Brian.Cameron at sun.com> wrote:
>
> David:
>
>> Why would some user of CK (e.g. a program) ever want select the slow
>> method?
>>
>> I think the point I was trying to make is that you only want 'slow' if
>> you are trying to debug some oddball problem. Or if your hardware
>> broken (in which case you edit a configuration file that reboot(8)
>> will read so it always select 'slow').
>
> I am not sure how fast/slow reboot works on Linux, but on Solaris they
> work as follows:
>
> - Fast reboot does not actually reboot the machine, it just reboots the
>  Solaris kernel.  So if you have a multi-OS machine, you do not go back
>  to the GRUB menu to select a different OS to boot into.  This reboot
>  is much faster than a slow reboot.
> - Slow reboot reboots the machine so you go back to the GRUB menu so
>  you can select a different OS to boot into.
>
> I'd say about 75% of the time I want a fast reboot because I just want
> to reboot my machine into my Solaris kernel and I want it to be fast.
>
> However, there are plenty of times that I also want to reboot into a
> different OS on my machine.  Without having the choice, I'd have to
> shut down, and then power up my machine to get back to the GRUB menu,
> which is annoying.  Personally, I would prefer to be able to choose in
> the GUI.

This assumes that it's a good idea to use GRUB UI to select what OS to
start. Which I think is wrong. It also assumes that people has
multiple OSes on a box which, for non-developers, I also think is
wrong....

Instead, as I tried to explain, you'd configure this from within the
OS in a "Startup Disk" preference capplet (which is why having a
button called "Startup Disk" in the shutdown dialog might be useful).
Or, in lieu of such UI, you'd edit /etc/grub.conf. And reboot(8) would
only do fast reboot if the grub.conf (or whatever) defaults to a
kernel from the OS you are currently running.

Note that in Fedora, we don't _even_ show GRUB anymore in the default
install (the user has to hold down e.g. the SHIFT key to get to it).

      David