Comment 32 for bug 201673

OK, stuff happens. I recovered my laptop and will recover my server that is being configured for production. While I did not expect bugs that severe, I was warned and recovery was not that difficult. No biggie.

Here's three different conclusions:

1) R o o t P a s s w o r d

What is apparent to me, is that many system recovery features do require having a valid unix root password.

I think that it is highly precarious to leave users unable to "just screw that fancy stuff and logon as root" as they would be unable to perform various system recovery functions if that is so. (example, /home directory lost)

After any Ubuntu install, my FIRST command is always

  sudo passwd root

I think that a suitable installation action would be to "set root password to the first user password". (my root password is not the same)

2) M a i l i n g L i s t

I would personally like to subscribe to a "hardy-alerts" mailing list and get notified of such things as they occur. If such a list exists, I would like to subscribe to it, if not, I would like to see it. Not for minor bugs, but for showstopper bugs.

3) R e g r e s s i o n T e s t i n g

I write regression tests for anything that I program at work. I think that in the case of Ubuntu, it is possible to come up with an automated test that involves, at the very least, a successful multiuser boot, user able to login, ssh working, and the "system update drivetrain" working as well. A minimum system config that does not leave its users stranded. Such a test would be even more useful for production stage. If anyone needs help here, I could dedicate some time to it.