Bug #6884
closed
"Reboot" option should be under "System" menu, not "Diagnostics"
0%
Description
I'm new to pfsense, and this is my first bug report. Please be gentle. :)
I had to google how to reboot pfsense, because I could not for the life of me find where the reboot command was. :)
I really think it would make more sense under "System". ("Logout" is already there.)
I suspect it's been like this a long time and many are used to it, but from the eyes of this newbie, it's very weird, which I hope is a non-controversial opinion.
Files
| OSXReboot.png (30.4 KB) OSXReboot.png | |||
| WindowReboot.png (43.2 KB) WindowReboot.png | |||
| SonicwallReboot.png (30.3 KB) SonicwallReboot.png |
Updated by 
Updated by Phillip Davis over 8 years ago
When I first came to pfSense I had the same trouble finding the Reboot entry and Halt entry.
The flip side to this is that on a firewall/router, actually you don't want people just rebooting (or even worse, halting) just willy-nilly. So there is some argument for making the menu entry hard to find :)
Updated by Jim Pingle over 8 years ago
- Status changed from New to Rejected
This debate pops up every now and then and there hasn't been a compelling argument for moving it. Rebooting and shutting down the firewall are intended to be rare tasks, so keeping them under Diagnostics seems more fitting since they're regularly only done while troubleshooting.
Updated by Kill Bill over 8 years ago
I think all the current locations simply suck. Why not have a menu in place of the current logout button that offers Logout/Reboot/Halt.
Updated by Jim Pingle over 8 years ago
Because it's a bikeshed discussion that will never please everyone. Making reboot and halt more accessible is not a good thing. They are not common actions for a firewall.
Updated by Kill Bill over 8 years ago
Shrug; not sure how common action is rebooting a NAS:
QNAP: 
Synology: 
FreeNAS: 
Nowhere can I see these 3 actions scattered randomly across cryptic places such as Diagnostics (what does halt/reboot have to do with diagnostics?!). Personally, I'm using the console menu for reboot which is the most accessible option.
Updated by Jim Pingle over 8 years ago
In the typical firewall use case, a reboot or halt only happens when there is a problem that needs correcting, which lends weight to them being under Diagnostics because troubleshooting problems is a diagnostic action.
It also makes logical sense for them to be under System, but see above, re: Don't encourage their use.
NAS reboots would be much more frequent for disk additions/removals/swaps/etc compared to a firewall. Apples and oranges.
Beyond that, we'll have to agree to disagree. Their current location makes sense, and to move them would add more confusion + education + documentation updates beyond simply changing the location in the code. It may seem like a simple change, but it has much larger implications. Every time we've renamed or moved a menu entry it's been a pain in several ways.
Updated by Sean McBride over 8 years ago
- File OSXReboot.png OSXReboot.png added
- File WindowReboot.png WindowReboot.png added
- File SonicwallReboot.png SonicwallReboot.png added
First, I really did not intend to start a bikeshedding flame war. :) I honestly thought it would be non-controversial that "Reboot" is misplaced. Logout, reboot, shutdown are grouped in basically every UI I can think of. Kill Bill shows some screenshots. OS X, Windows, and Sonicwall are similar, see attached.
Consistency is a hallmark of good user interface. This includes consistency amongst similar devices.
Jim, indeed rebooting is not needed frequently. But frequency of use and the decision of how to group commands is independent, in my view anyway.
As I'm new here, I won't press this issue further if you still disagree. :)
Updated by Kill Bill about 8 years ago
Here's a mock up of that do to with the orphaned "Logout" button, changing it to an "Actions" menu. https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/pull/3566
Reboot/Halt could be added trivially there, but I skipped that in the PR.