Hi, The console subsystem already has an idea of a boot console, using the CON_BOOT flag. The implementation has some flaws though. The major problem is that presence of a boot console makes register_console() ignore any other console devices (unless explicitly specified on the kernel command line). This patch fixes the console selection code to *not* consider a boot console a full-featured one, so the first non-boot console registering will become the default console instead. This way the unregister call for the boot console in the register_console() function actually triggers and the handover from the boot console to the real console device works smoothly. Added a printk for the handover, so you know which console device the output goes to when the boot console stops printing messages. The disable_early_printk() call is obsolete with that patch, explicitly disabling the early console isn't needed any more as it works automagically with that patch. I've walked through the tree, dropped all disable_early_printk() instances found below arch/ and tagged the consoles with CON_BOOT if needed. The code is tested on x86 only so far. It is probably a good idea to run it in -mm for a while to shake out any architecture issues which might show up. Comments? cheers, Gerd -- Gerd Hoffmann