Re: /sbin/macos ...self-destruct mechanism?


Subject: Re: /sbin/macos ...self-destruct mechanism?
From: Hollis Blanchard (hollis-lists@austin.rr.com)
Date: Sun Nov 11 2001 - 13:22:09 MST


on 10/11/01 7:17 PM, Timothy A. Seufert at tas@mindspring.com wrote:
>
> Hollis, why not drop macos from pmac-utils? People keep stumbling
> over this problem and it seems doubtful that its functionality is
> important to anybody these days. ybin/yaboot and quik users don't
> need it because those packages provide boot menus. You don't need to
> change the NVRAM to boot back into MacOS anymore. BootX and miboot
> users should not need it either for obvious reasons. It just seems
> to cause problems because people run it without realizing what it is
> going to do.

I find that line of reasoning a little unsettling (isn't that a classic
example of "don't do that" behavior?), but I guess I would find leaving a
loaded gun in a kindergarten class a little unsettling too.

Since /sbin/macos just calls nvsetenv (which is still available), no
functionality is lost, and I have no objection to removing it. I no longer
have direct access to the pmac-utils TSS ships, but I'll see what can be
done.

Of course, this does nothing to prevent cmd-opt-P-R from doing the same
thing. To whomever entitled this thread "self-destruct mechanism", I think
there are far worse things that can be done to a computer than reset its
nvram to the factory default.

> In fact, it can screw up Old World PowerMacs bad enough
> to require a PRAM reset because it sets "boot-device" to a value
> which will only work with New World OF versions. (I have had to
> assist a YDL 2.0 user who ended up in exactly that situation; he
> thought his computer was dead because it just sat there with the
> screen blank.)

That's extremely bad, and is an excellent reason to remove it.

-Hollis



This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Nov 11 2001 - 13:34:01 MST