[BUG?] 2.6.23-rc3 on alpha

[BUG?] 2.6.23-rc3 on alpha

[Bob Tracy]

Thanks to Richard for the "aboot" fixes.

I'm seeing something new and strange with 2.6.23-rc3 that I wasn't
seeing in the 2.6.22+ kernels.  I've got the bootlogo code enabled,
and at the point during system initialization where the logo
disappears, the console switches from tty1 to tty2.  I can switch
back to tty1, so other than the unexpected console tty switch, there
doesn't seem to be anything "unfortunate" happening.

Any ideas/explanations?  It's completely repeatable.  I don't think
it's related to the "aboot" patches :-).

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Tracy               | "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get
rct@frus.com            |  sucked into jet engines."       --Anon
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Re: [BUG?] 2.6.23-rc3 on alpha

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, Bob Tracy wrote:
> I'm seeing something new and strange with 2.6.23-rc3 that I wasn't
> seeing in the 2.6.22+ kernels.  I've got the bootlogo code enabled,
> and at the point during system initialization where the logo
> disappears, the console switches from tty1 to tty2.  I can switch
> back to tty1, so other than the unexpected console tty switch, there
> doesn't seem to be anything "unfortunate" happening.
> 
> Any ideas/explanations?  It's completely repeatable.  I don't think
> it's related to the "aboot" patches :-).

The kernel doesn't make the logo disappear, the boot scripts (in
userspace) do that. So I guess they also switch the console from tty1 to
tty2.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

Re: [BUG?] 2.6.23-rc3 on alpha

[Bob Tracy]

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, Bob Tracy wrote:
> > I'm seeing something new and strange with 2.6.23-rc3 that I wasn't
> > seeing in the 2.6.22+ kernels.  I've got the bootlogo code enabled,
> > and at the point during system initialization where the logo
> > disappears, the console switches from tty1 to tty2.  I can switch
> > back to tty1, so other than the unexpected console tty switch, there
> > doesn't seem to be anything "unfortunate" happening.
> > 
> > Any ideas/explanations?  It's completely repeatable.  I don't think
> > it's related to the "aboot" patches :-).
> 
> The kernel doesn't make the logo disappear, the boot scripts (in
> userspace) do that. So I guess they also switch the console from tty1 to
> tty2.

Agreed that a userspace program is triggering the console switch (the
boot logo normally disappears when the VC fonts get loaded), but what
changed to make this happen where it wasn't happening before?  I've
obviously got some more detective work to do, but I had discounted the
possibility of a user space software update being responsible: the
Debian stable series tends not to have many updates...  Hmmm...  I
recently updated libc6 and related packages (locales, tzdata, etc.).
I don't think I'm going to track this down anytime soon, but the first
step would be to determine which init script is involved.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Tracy               | "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get
rct@frus.com            |  sucked into jet engines."       --Anon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [BUG?] 2.6.23-rc3 on alpha

[Bob Tracy]

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, Bob Tracy wrote:
> > I'm seeing something new and strange with 2.6.23-rc3 that I wasn't
> > seeing in the 2.6.22+ kernels.  I've got the bootlogo code enabled,
> > and at the point during system initialization where the logo
> > disappears, the console switches from tty1 to tty2.  I can switch
> > back to tty1, so other than the unexpected console tty switch, there
> > doesn't seem to be anything "unfortunate" happening.
> > 
> > Any ideas/explanations?  It's completely repeatable.  I don't think
> > it's related to the "aboot" patches :-).
> 
> The kernel doesn't make the logo disappear, the boot scripts (in
> userspace) do that. So I guess they also switch the console from tty1 to
> tty2.

I don't disagree with Geert's statement (the console was switching when
the console fonts got loaded during system initialization), but the
problem no longer exists in 2.6.23-rc5.  Weird.  N.B.: it could have
been fixed in 2.6.23-rc4, but I didn't try that kernel.  In any event,
I'll quit looking for the cause unless the problem recurs :-).

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Tracy          |  "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist- "
rct@frus.com       |   - Last words of Union General John Sedgwick,
                   |  Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, U.S. Civil War
------------------------------------------------------------------------