Logs to USB feature

[rgaudin]

In order to better assist users in case of issue, having an easy access to startup logs would be very handy.

One way to do this is for the user to insert an USB disk into the machine. Those logs would then be copied as a text file on it.

There are several limitations/questions:

• that requires a lot of things to work that a broken system might not provide: udev, mount, vfat, exfat, ntfs (so a clear usb)
• how would that work?
  • On insertion? Then we know we can mount/write/umount safely bnut requires somewhat working.
  • Inserted before booting? then when do we umount?
• what logs would be concerned by this? We don't store logs on disk so we mostly have access to boot+systemd from the current run
• we do store docker (apps) logs but only a limited amount
• we do store metrics data

[benoit74]

Would that be an option as well to store results of testing hotspot at the end of fabrication? Simply plugging-in a USB key and automatically dumping there all available logs (including the ones of the special first boot) could help a lot, I like the elegance of this setup.

I think we should not care too much about seriously broken systems at first, but rather simpler issues which could be solved remotely by simply inspecting boot logs. For seriously broken systems, I doubt we really have an option but gain physical access to the machine. And even then, diagnosing the issue is probably quite often not worth it, simply reinstalling a new system is preferable.

[benoit74]

And how does this "compete" with the Kiwix Companion app? Looks like there is some (a lot?) overlap

[44yu5h]

We could create a systemd service that triggers on USB insertion, either during the boot process or shortly after it starts. Since dumping logs on every boot just because a USB is present might not be ideal, it seems more reasonable to trigger the dump based on the timing of the insertion relative to the boot process.

Once detected, the service can collect and write the relevant logs to the USB. Journalctl logs from the current boot, and Docker logs should be sufficient for a start, I think.

Additionally, we could consider placing the logs inside a hidden folder like .logs, so they remain unobtrusive unless the user specifically wants to access them.