From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Elladan Subject: Re: [Linux-fbdev-devel] [announce 0/7] fbsplash - The Framebuffer Splash Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:34:08 -0800 Message-ID: <20050313193408.GA26344@eskimo.com> References: <20050308015731.GA26249@spock.one.pl> <200503091301.15832.adaplas@hotpop.com> <9e473391050308220218cc26a3@mail.gmail.com> <1110392212.3116.215.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1110408049.9942.275.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20050310145419.GD632@openzaurus.ucw.cz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Cc: Linux Frame Buffer Device Development , Geert Uytterhoeven , Alan Cox , Michal Januszewski , Linux Kernel Development , "Antonino A. Daplas" On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 06:03:20PM +0000, James Simmons wrote: > > > > > Thats why moving the eye candy console into user space is such a good > > > > idea. You don't have to run it 8) It also means that the console > > > > development is accessible to all the crazy rasterman types. > > > > > > Yep. The basic console we already have. Everyone who wants eye candy can switch > > > from basic console to user space console in early userspace. > > > > > > > Heh, I'm afraid it does not work like that. Anyone who wants eye-candy > > simply applies broken patch to their kernel... unless their distribution applied one > > already. > > > > Situation where we have one working eye-candy patch would certainly > > be an improvement. > > Why do we need patches in the kernel. Just set you config to > CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE, CONFIG_FB, CONFIG_INPUT and don't set fbcon or > vgacon. Then have a userspace app using /dev/fb and /dev/input create a > userland console. There is no need to do special hacks in the kernel. Putting it in userland would make it impossible to debug what's wrong with the system if there's a kernel error, since userland will die long before it can spit out anything useful. The primary purpose of these things is to make a distribution look pretty while booting. Lots of people complain that Linux distros look "old fashioned" or something because they don't show little dancing girls during early boot. I should think the primary features you need here are: * Can display some pretty looking thing with a logo * If there's a problem during boot (userspace error, oops, panic, etc.) then it should become a regular console able to scroll back over the boot-time spew. I don't think a user-space version can do that for anything except userspace errors, so a kernel console is better. -J