Re: Making powerd=YES default

[Marc Balmer <mbalmer%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

Am 25.07.11 14:38, schrieb Jean-Yves Migeon:
> Dear all,
> 
> Would it be acceptable to turn powerd on by default? Rationale follows:
> 
> My current save/restore code for Xen makes use of it. The way the Xen
> API is designed does not permit sending back notifications to dom0 to
> inform that suspension cannot be done, and this ends up with a xm(1)
> command sleeping ~forever without the user's knowing why.
> 
> IMHO this is quite inconvenient from an admin's perspective, and the
> only ways around are:
> 1 - to have powerd(8) enabled by default,
> 2 - let the domU start it (assuming he knows that he has to) before
> firing suspend events. Assuming that the dom0 admin is not necessarily
> the domU's admin, this can be problematic.
> 3 - completely circumvent powerd(8) by managing the event in kernel, and
> let the pmf(9) threads perform the sleep for us.
> 
> IMHO, 1) looks like the best trade off. 3) feels awkward, because it's a
> choice that says powerd(8) might not be necessary for suspension, which
> is a departure from delegating power management to userland.
> 
> Opinions welcome. if no one objects, I'll go for 1) in a week or so :)

My opinion is:  It should *not* be enabled by default, but rather during
system install time, i.e. in sysinst, towards the end of the
installation, the user should be asked a few questions:

- Do you want to run powerd by default?
- Do you want to run sshd by default?
- etc.

sysinst can then taylor /etc/rc.conf accordingly.

(The OpenBSD installer asks such questions during install, you might
want to check that one to see what I mean.)