From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755514Ab0I2VgL (ORCPT ); Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:36:11 -0400 Received: from g6t0186.atlanta.hp.com ([15.193.32.63]:25393 "EHLO g6t0186.atlanta.hp.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752822Ab0I2VgJ (ORCPT ); Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:36:09 -0400 From: Bjorn Helgaas To: Alan Cox Subject: Re: [PATCH] DMI: log system, BIOS, and board information Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:35:12 -0600 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.2 (Linux/2.6.32-25-generic; KDE/4.4.2; x86_64; ; ) Cc: Andrew Morton , x86@kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <20100929182402.31093.4303.stgit@bob.kio> <20100929222623.4b020427@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> In-Reply-To: <20100929222623.4b020427@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201009291535.12969.bjorn.helgaas@hp.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wednesday, September 29, 2010 03:26:23 pm Alan Cox wrote: > On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:24:02 -0600 > Bjorn Helgaas wrote: > > > > Put basic system information in the dmesg log. There are lots of dmesg > > logs on the web, and it would be useful if they contained this information > > for debugging platform problems. > > > > DMI often doesn't supply a board name, but I assume the others are pretty > > standard. > > You need to filter the characters before printing them in the log. Some > platforms contain binary garbage. Oh, good point. Filtering sounds feasible in concept, at least. > It's also the wrong thing in most cases because the key data is in sysfs > so your bug capturing tool can collect it. Sure, there's no question that this information and a lot more is easily available elsewhere. Most of the bug reports I see are not generated by bug capturing tools; they're generated by Joe User posting a dmesg log. For many platform issues, it would be quite useful if that log already contained a hint about what platform it is. The collection of dmesg logs on the web + Google indexing + a platform ID would be a great help in locating similar failures and contacting testers. Bjorn