Re: better console support

[Edward Pilatowicz <edward.pilatowicz@sun.com>]

so it seems that some people are at least interested in accessing
the xen debugger on the local vga console keyboard.

so what would be any requirements for local console debugger support on
xen?

- would it be good to have access to vga/keyboard devices while xen is
  loading?  i guess this would depend on if xen currently support dropping
  to it's interactive debugger while it is booting up?  or only after the
  host os is booted?

- would it be sufficient to only be able to access the xen debugger
  via a vga/keyboard device after the dom0 os has started up?  if
  so would this be needed very early on in the dom0's boot or
  later on after the dom0 has had more time to bring itself up.

i'm really haven't had a huge amount of experience using the xen debugger
so i'm not sure what the most common use cases in the past have been.
answers to the questions above from people who have used the xen
debugger more extensively would be enlightening.

ed

On Fri, Jan 26, 2007 at 08:01:40AM -0800, Joe Bonasera wrote:
> Keir Fraser wrote:
> >On 26/1/07 12:54 pm, "Christoph Egger" <Christoph.Egger@amd.com> wrote:
> >
> >>>>Xen doesn't include a full debugger
> >>>There is one out there though... maybe Christopher has thought about
> >>>this?
> >>I have a working one. Is there a chance to get the patches into Xen 3.0.6
> >>?
> >
> >Why would anyone want to debug over a low-res unscrollable VGA console? If
> >you have a serial line connected then you can already debug via gdb, which
> >surely provides a nicer environment?
> >
>
> It's not so much a choice of wanting to, as having to. Many classes of x86
> computers no longer have serial ports. They're next to impossible to find
> on new
> laptops and rapidly getting that way with desktops and workstations.
> The people defining "platforms" have been killing off "legacy" devices like
> serial ports in favor of USB. It's a lot easier to do a little VGA
> debugging than
> to convince someone to go out and shop around for some sort of add in card
> to get a serial port.
>
> Joe
>