From: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
To: John Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>
Cc: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@chromium.org>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
Marcos Paulo de Souza <mpdesouza@suse.com>,
Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 6/9] printk: Try to register each console as Braille first
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:00:11 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260423130015.85175-7-pmladek@suse.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260423130015.85175-1-pmladek@suse.com>
Braille consoles are unique: they can only be enabled via the command
line and use the preferred console framework for initialization, yet
they are never added to the console_list or associated with
/dev/console. Because of this, the preferred_console variable remains
unset when only a Braille console is requested.
Currently, try_enable_preferred_console() must be called even when
"preferred_dev_console" variable is not set, just to catch these "hidden"
Braille requests.
Refactor the logic by adding a parameter to try_enable_preferred_console()
to explicitly handle Braille vs. non-Braille cases. It will eventually
allow to skip try_enable_preferred_console() when there are no preferred
consoles. This improves code robustness by ensuring the console
setup is explicit and only performed once.
Note that _braille_register_console() is skipped when the given console
driver has a match() callback and it succeeded. It means that it took
over an early console and can't be used as a Braille console.
As a result try_enable_braille_console() might return success even
when it did not enabled the console in the Braille mode. It is
the reason why register_console() has to explicitly check whether
CON_BRL flag was really set and could skip the further steps.
The refactoring even fixes two subtle bugs:
1. When only the Braille console is defined on the command line,
the original code might attempt to enable the same console twice—once
as a default and once as a Braille console. This results in calling
the setup() callback twice and incorrectly setting the CON_CONSDEV flag.
2. When the same console is defined on the command line using devname
and then as Braille console, for example:
console=00:00:0.0,115200 console=brl,ttyS0,115200
It would have two separate entries in preferred_consoles[] array.
The 2nd (Braille) entry would be used when univ8250_console_init()
tries to register the generic "ttyS" console driver. Note that
the 1st entry still does not have defined the "name" entry at
this stage.
The 1st non-Braille entry would be used later when serial8250_init()
registers all found devices, assigns "tty0" for the given "00:00:0.0"
devname and tries to register the same struct console once again.
The original code would call newcon->setup() twice in this scenario.
It won't add the console into console_list only because the later
check in register_console() would detect CON_BRL flag set from
the 1st registration and return early.
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
---
kernel/printk/printk.c | 56 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 50 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/printk/printk.c b/kernel/printk/printk.c
index 2543c810efcb..e34955189d16 100644
--- a/kernel/printk/printk.c
+++ b/kernel/printk/printk.c
@@ -367,6 +367,7 @@ static int console_locked;
static struct preferred_console preferred_consoles[MAX_PREFERRED_CONSOLES];
static int preferred_dev_console = -1;
+static bool want_braille_console;
int console_set_on_cmdline;
EXPORT_SYMBOL(console_set_on_cmdline);
@@ -2644,7 +2645,9 @@ static int update_preferred_console(unsigned int i,
braille_update_options(pc, brl_options);
- if (!brl_options)
+ if (brl_options)
+ want_braille_console = true;
+ else
preferred_dev_console = i;
/*
@@ -3975,8 +3978,9 @@ static int console_call_setup(struct console *newcon, char *options)
* Care need to be taken with consoles that are statically
* enabled such as netconsole
*/
-static int try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
- bool user_specified)
+static int __try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
+ bool user_specified,
+ bool try_only_braille)
{
struct preferred_console *pc;
int i, err;
@@ -3987,8 +3991,19 @@ static int try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
/* Console not yet initialized? */
if (!pc->name[0])
continue;
- if (pc->user_specified != user_specified)
- continue;
+
+ /*
+ * @try_only_braille and @user_specifified define which
+ * preferred console entries are handled in this round.
+ */
+ if (try_only_braille) {
+ if (!is_braille_console_preferred(pc))
+ continue;
+ } else {
+ if (pc->user_specified != user_specified)
+ continue;
+ }
+
if (!newcon->match ||
newcon->match(newcon, pc->name, pc->index, pc->options) != 0) {
/* default matching */
@@ -4001,7 +4016,7 @@ static int try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
if (newcon->index < 0)
newcon->index = pc->index;
- if (is_braille_console_preferred(pc))
+ if (try_only_braille)
return _braille_register_console(newcon, pc);
err = console_call_setup(newcon, pc->options);
@@ -4025,6 +4040,17 @@ static int try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
return -ENOENT;
}
+static int try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
+ bool user_specified)
+{
+ return __try_enable_preferred_console(newcon, user_specified, false);
+}
+
+static int try_enable_braille_console(struct console *newcon)
+{
+ return __try_enable_preferred_console(newcon, true, true);
+}
+
/* Try to enable the console unconditionally */
static void try_enable_default_console(struct console *newcon)
{
@@ -4047,6 +4073,24 @@ static int try_enable_console(struct console *newcon)
{
int err;
+ /*
+ * First, try to enable the console driver as a Braille console.
+ * It would have metadata in the preferred_consoles[] array.
+ * But it won't be counted as @preferred_console because
+ * it does not get printk() messages and is not associated
+ * with /dev/console.
+ *
+ * Note that it might succeed also when the driver has a match()
+ * callback and it took over a boot console. In this case,
+ * the driver will continue working as a classic non-Braille
+ * console.
+ */
+ if (want_braille_console) {
+ err = try_enable_braille_console(newcon);
+ if (err != -ENOENT)
+ return err;
+ }
+
/*
* See if we want to enable this console driver by default.
*
--
2.53.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-04-23 13:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-04-23 13:00 [PATCH v2 0/9] printk: Clean up preferred console handling Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 1/9] printk: Rename struct console_cmdline to preferred_console Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 14:16 ` Steven Rostedt
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 2/9] printk: Rename preferred_console to preferred_dev_console Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 3/9] printk: Separate code for adding/updating preferred console metadata Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 4/9] printk: Cleanup _braille_(un)register_console() wrappers Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 5/9] printk: Separate code for enabling console Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` Petr Mladek [this message]
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 7/9] printk: Do not set Braille console as preferred_console Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 8/9] printk: Handle pre-enabled consoles in the top-level try_enable_console() Petr Mladek
2026-04-23 13:00 ` [PATCH v2 9/9] printk: Try enable preferred consoles only when there are any Petr Mladek
2026-04-24 8:20 ` [PATCH v2 0/9] printk: Clean up preferred console handling Petr Mladek
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