From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: by befuddled.reisers.ca (Postfix, from userid 65534) id D9E8E1EF7BC; Thu, 9 Oct 2014 15:03:53 -0400 (EDT) Received: from hurricane.the-brannons.com (hurricane.the-brannons.com [64.62.188.119]) by befuddled.reisers.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id BBA371EF7AF for ; Thu, 9 Oct 2014 15:03:52 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (71-38-154-164.ptld.qwest.net [71.38.154.164]) by hurricane.the-brannons.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 69EBD78C54 for ; Thu, 9 Oct 2014 12:04:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Chris Brannon To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." Subject: Re: the push to get rid of CONFIG_VT in the kernel and the future of Speakup References: <87zjd64c16.fsf@mushroom.PK5001Z> <543593E4.5040400@gmail.com> <54359B9E.10203@verizon.net> <21407.1412799969@ccs.covici.com> <20141009021859.GA27091@gregn.net> <543696F6.7090109@math.wisc.edu> <87h9zd2u16.fsf@mushroom.PK5001Z> <5436B890.9000803@math.wisc.edu> Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 12:03:50 -0700 In-Reply-To: <5436B890.9000803@math.wisc.edu> (John G. Heim's message of "Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:32:16 -0500") Message-ID: <878ukp2hgp.fsf@mushroom.PK5001Z> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Bogosity: Ham, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=0.000000, version=1.2.4 X-BeenThere: speakup@linux-speakup.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 19:03:54 -0000 "John G. Heim" writes: > On 10/09/14 09:32, Chris Brannon wrote: >> "John G. Heim" writes: >> >>> Here at the University of Wisconsin, there >>> are a lot of linux systems admin jobs. And for the majority of them, >>> it would be a big problem if you couldn't access the boot messages. >> >> Is the serial console support not appropriate / acceptable? > > > But I'd like to know with absolute > certainty that the proposed change to the linux kernel wouldn't also > effect a serial console. Well, I can't give you absolute certainty, but I suspect that the kernel support for serial consoles is here to stay. Part of the difference is the amount of code. The virtual console subsystem is a lot more complicated than the simple serial console used for boot messages, because it has to provide a full VT100 terminal emulator in kernelspace. On the other hand, the serial console doesn't have to emulate anything, since the thing on the other end of the cable is a real terminal of some sort. All it has to do is blast the kernel messages out the serial port. So the main difference is complexity. -- Chris