Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!us.feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.fsmpi.rwth-aachen.de!newsfeed.straub-nv.de!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Tim Watts Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: How do home users of linux protect themselves against ill-advised changes? Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 11:15:13 +0000 Lines: 29 Message-ID: <1b8qnb-ne9.ln1@squidward.dionic.net> References: <4sconb-kun.ln1@squidward.dionic.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net VAaVWf10N+st+BWHzkvifghV30q3hsz/EOjNNqbXjFi+5uX/65 X-Orig-Path: squidward.dionic.net!not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:AFqz7wunTZimpu1GMWSOu5rhoGE= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.3.0 In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:13255 On 04/01/15 23:30, The Natural Philosopher wrote: > >> >> I said it was possible - in direct rebuttal to TNP's statement that only >> a broken kernel would break booting. >> > My point was that in a stable distro those other things simply do not > happen. I will agree if you lessen the statement to "usually do not happen" ;-) I've had a failing SSD and many instances of ReiserFS breaking (in 2002 ish) cause damage to /sbin/init and thus break the system - so it's more than a theoretical possibilty It was of course fixable as the damage was so localised. > The only time the distro boys get caught out is by a > hardware/driver/kernel combo that they weren't able to test. > > The ;point being that the OP was asking the naive question,. not tge > super in depth 'is it theoretically possible' question. > > I can stop a computer booting any time. I just take a sledge hammer to > it. Its theoretically possible after all. > > >