Fallback command not enough

[Penelope Fudd]

Hello!

I read about a feature of lilo that records whether the last boot was
successful, and if not, boot a fallback image.

I read about the 'fallback' option in the documentation for grub, but
from what I read I suspect it only checks the syntax of the boot command
for bad files or partitions, or if the kernel is not the right format.

The problem I'm hoping to solve is: if there's massive filesystem
corruption on partition 'A', boot the OS on fallback partition 'B' next
time.  This makes it perfect for our colocated server (in another
country), because the colo company has a reboot email address; email it
a password and your server reboots.

A helper program would have to be run after the OS boots, to set a flag
saying 'this partition (A) booted correctly', letting GRUB know that it
can use partition 'A' again next time.

What do you think?  Has it been done already?

-- 
Penelope Fudd <address@hidden>