Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?

[stephenw10]

They weren't banned for that though.

In my opinion it's not an unreasonable question. If you're a new user some of the menu items might be in unexpected places. What's less reasonable is making a huge deal of it.
It's hard for me to judge that (and probably many others) because I'm so used to the current menu locations. If we moved them outright I'm sure you would see pages of complaints here!
What we might be able to do would be duplicate some entries. Or make some locations selectable, I could imagine a new/old menus option. But that introduces more tech debt we don't need.

Steve

[nimrod]

@stephenw10 said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

They weren't banned for that though.

I know. That thread is not ban worthy. But still, he is banned. And im sure theres a good reason for that. Thats all im saying.

In my opinion it's not an unreasonable question.

I agree. But devs should not waste their time on that. There are more important things they can invest their time on.

If you're a new user some of the menu items might be in unexpected places.

Again. I agree. But once you actually start using pfSense and get a hold of it, thats not a issue at all.

What's less reasonable is making a huge deal of it.

My point exactly.

It's hard for me to judge that (and probably many others) because I'm so used to the current menu locations. If we moved them outright I'm sure you would see pages of complaints here!

Thats exactly what im saying. Its just not worth it.

What we might be able to do would be duplicate some entries. Or make some locations selectable, I could imagine a new/old menus option. But that introduces more tech debt we don't need.

Steve

I see no reason for that. Why waste time and resources for something so irrelevant?

[Cool_Corona]

Look at the competetion...

Do they have reboot under diagnostics or under system??

I rest my case.

This is UX.

[johnpoz]

@nimrod said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

Why waste time and resources for something so irrelevant?

I agree, especially since more than likely it would generate people not being able to find it ;) if they were moved.

When it might make sense is when a major overall haul is done.. If your going to redo the whole gui for example then that would be the time to adjust any such menu items that might make more sense in another location.

But to be honest, I pretty much agree with the comment from jimp in the old thread.. You should almost never have to halt or reboot the system unless you were having some issues that diagnostics come into play, and your last hope is a reboot ;) heheh

But on the other hand, power and reboot, etc. does seem like a system menu sort of thing.. ;)

I could really care less where a menu item is.. Especially if its off the main ones, takes what 10 seconds to look through them all if you're not sure where something is. Now the tricky part is when they are buried a few levels deep under something that isn't plain as day to where that something might be..

As mentioned already though by @Gertjan above - if you really want it moved, have at it and move whatever items you want to whatever menu you want - or get real fancy and create your own top level menu.

To be honest the only time mine gets rebooted is when its upgrading to a new version. Or not all that long ago I had an extended power outage that by what was sent out by the power company would of gone past my ups run time so I did do a halt then..

You can always just ssh to pfsense, and there you go the halt and reboot are right there on the small console menu with only a few items.. Numbers 5 and 6

[mer]

@johnpoz said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

I could really care less where a menu item is.

Agreed. I may not agree where it is, but once I learn it, who cares? It's not like the GUI on pfSense is "the GUI for a general purpose OS" where you want consistency. It's single purpose, dedicated. Like a kiosk thing at the mall.

So the old thread was fun reading, this one, sounds like an echo.

[nimrod]

@cool_corona said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

Look at the competetion...

Do they have reboot under diagnostics or under system??

Uninstall pfSense, and install whatever that competition has to offer. Problem solved.

@johnpoz said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

@nimrod said in Why is "Halt System" and "Reboot" in the menu "Diagnostics" - and not "Status"?:

When it might make sense is when a major overall haul is done.. If your going to redo the whole gui for example then that would be the time to adjust any such menu items that might make more sense in another location.

Yes. I agree. In that case, it makes perfect sense, since you are already redoing everything.

But to be honest, I pretty much agree with the comment from jimp in the old thread.. You should almost never have to halt or reboot the system unless you were having some issues that diagnostics come into play, and your last hope is a reboot ;) heheh

True. pfSense is the silent workhorse of mine that i even forget its there.

But on the other hand, power and reboot, etc. does seem like a system menu sort of thing.. ;)

Thats true. But again, its not thread worthy nor should netgate waste their resources on that. Unless, as you said, there is a major UI overhaul.

As mentioned already though by @Gertjan above - if you really want it moved, have at it and move whatever items you want to whatever menu you want - or get real fancy and create your own top level menu.

Agree.

To be honest the only time mine gets rebooted is when its upgrading to a new version. Or not all that long ago I had an extended power outage that by what was sent out by the power company would of gone past my ups run time so I did do a halt then..

Same here.

[Cool_Corona]

You guys are incredible....

Something that is obvious to anybody suddenly goes down that "i dont use it very much so I forget its there" path....

Or "reboot is only necessary for diagnostic purposes" and thats why its there....

It has nothing to do with UX.

It has nothing to do with logic and userfriendlyness.

Its wrong and you know it.

Then we are asked to fix it ourselves rewriting the head.inc (I think) and after an upgrade..... voila. Lets waste some more time doing it again and push it to the hundreds of firewalls that needs this.

I simply dont get it....

[mer]

@cool_corona
Dude, really? I've reread this a number of times and your statements:

It has nothing to do with UX.
It has nothing to do with logic and userfriendlyness.

make zero sense to me.

Write a bug, write an enhancement request, argue about it with the ones actually developing the GUI, send in a patch. Going round and round with people that are not making those decisions is basically a waste of bandwidth.

Every single thing with a GUI I've ever used had things I didn't like, things I thought were in the wrong place. You know what I did? Shrugged my shoulders, made a note of it and moved on.

[Gertjan]

Jus for the record : it was already there even before pfSense existed :

I all started here : https://doc.m0n0.ch/handbook-single/index.html#id11625280

As a general rule of thumb in m0n0wall and FreeBSD in general, rebooting probably isn't going to fix any problems you are having. But it is worth a shot in many circumstances.

Unlike so many systems, rebooting isn't a suggested maintenance procedure on m0n0wall. There is no need to reboot the system unless you have a specific reason for doing so

@mer said it : redmine it : take your pick, write the motivation, light up a candle, and see what happens.

[jdeloach]

@gertjan
While I agree with @Cool_Corona and from the comments that most folks including Netgate/pfSense folks that it is most likely located in the wrong GUI menu.

@Gertjan has just pointed out that it was noted back in the days before m0n0wall was forked to pfSense that it was in the wrong menu, and I just checked with the latest fork of pfSense to Opnsense that it is still located in the wrong GUI menu so none of the authors/programmers have any interest in moving it. It's just one of the many commands that makes no sense where they are located and no one is going to change it.

I think we've beaten this dead horse enough and it is time that the moderators should lock this thread.

[nimrod]

I agree. This thread should be locked.

[stephenw10]

Yes, this has degenerated into berating other users simply for for having another opinion which is unacceptable.

This is a known issue with no solution that will please everyone. Ultimately it's quite far down the list of priorities. Open a feature request or even a pull request.

Locking this.

Steve