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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday February 09 2016, @02:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the why-oh-why dept.

A number of users have reported that running "rm --no-preserve-root -rf /" not only deletes all their files (as expected), but also permanently bricks their computers (which is not). Tracing the issue revealed that the ultimate cause was that SystemD mounted the EFI pseudo-fs as read-write even when this FS was not listed in fstab, and deleting certain files in this pseudo-fs causes certain buggy, but very common, firmware not to POST anymore. A user reported this bug on SystemD's GitHub issue tracker, asking that the FS be mounted read-only instead of read-write, and said bug was immediately closed as invalid. The comment thread for the bug was locked shortly after. Discuss.

Links:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2402
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/02/01/running-a-single-delete-command-can-permanently-brick-laptops-from-inside-linux/


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by dyingtolive on Tuesday February 09 2016, @02:36AM

    by dyingtolive (952) on Tuesday February 09 2016, @02:36AM (#301120)

    Never had this problem in BSD.

    Nah, but seriously, it's almost like Pottering is clownshoes. Literal clownshoes.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday February 09 2016, @09:06AM

    by shrewdsheep (5215) on Tuesday February 09 2016, @09:06AM (#301292)

    Except for a few things, I believe that systemd (or something similar) is far superior to the init system. I have come to the conclusion that the main problem of systemd is the arrogance of the community. The kde community is similar, but not libreoffice. It seems to be possible to be an open, welcoming and considerate software community. Perhaps something can be improved by getting them some community involvement people (with those soft skills...). And please, by all means for kde, too.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @11:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @11:31PM (#307574)

      "the init system"

      There is no such thing. There is sysv init, there is bsd init, there is daemontools, there is nosh, there is i9, there is OpenRC, and the list goes on and on and on.

      Why is everyone so damn stuck up about comparing systemd to sysv as if it is the only other choice?!

      The while topic is reminiscent to the Thatcher mantra TINA (There Is No Alternative).