Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1997-49,: Re: Console handling (was: Re: Let's vote for PnP on 2.2)

# Re: Console handling (was: Re: Let's vote for PnP on 2.2)

Eberhard Burr (Eberhard.Burr@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de)
12 Dec 1997 16:07:28 +0100

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Pavel Machek <pavel@Elf.mj.gts.cz> writes:

> > I just recently thought about that (Dosemu died and took my console with
> > it).
> >
> > Would not something like the following be enough to always be able to
> > recover?
> >
> > 1. Make the kernel know how to reset the video card to a known state. This
> > should essentially be a string of "output X to register Y"; a user land
> > application could configure it via some IOCTL.
>
> No. For many video cards, there is *NO* single sequence to reset into
> known state. You have to use different sequence depending on state you
> are on. And kernel does not know what state hw is in :-(.

Still, being left with a dead console is an inconvinient situation,
especially on an non-networked machine. I'd love to see a possibility
to at least cleanly unmount all file systems in such cases. I've been
thinking about using upsd and a switch connected to a free serial
port...
<just reading the upsd docs> yes, you can do that if your video card
can be reset and you have a free serial port. Maybe something similar
could go into the Kernel: a compile-time option to confugure one
interrupt the same way as the ctl-alt-del combination (in case the
latter cannot be typed because the console is dead). It would still be
up to the user to wire a switch to - say, one of the pins of the ISA
bus and write a script for /etc/init.d/

Greetings,

    --
    Eberhard Burr             finger uhl4@rzstud2.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de for PGP key
                              #include <stddisc.h>  ------  electric cookie:
    "Why can't we ever attempt to solve a problem in this country without having
    a 'War' on it?" -- Rich Thomson, talk.politics.misc

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