Re: [RFC PATCH 27/33] Add the Xen virtual console driver.

[Hollis Blanchard <hollisb@us.ibm.com>]

On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 00:00 -0700, Chris Wright wrote:
> plain text document attachment (xen-console)
> This provides a bootstrap and ongoing emergency console which is
> intended to be available from very early during boot and at all times
> thereafter, in contrast with alternatives such as UDP-based syslogd,
> or logging in via ssh. The protocol is based on a simple shared-memory
> ring buffer.

> +/*
> + * Modes:
> + *  'xencons=off'  [XC_OFF]:     Console is disabled.
> + *  'xencons=tty'  [XC_TTY]:     Console attached to '/dev/tty[0-9]+'.
> + *  'xencons=ttyS' [XC_SERIAL]:  Console attached to '/dev/ttyS[0-9]+'.
> + *                 [XC_DEFAULT]: DOM0 -> XC_SERIAL ; all others -> XC_TTY.
> + * 
> + * NB. In mode XC_TTY, we create dummy consoles for tty2-63. This suppresses
> + * warnings from standard distro startup scripts.
> + */

The console driver should not be hijacking /dev/tty or /dev/ttyS
devices. Instead, it should use its own char device, like the pSeries
hypervisor console does (/dev/hvc).

Yes, I understand that installers, inittab, and securetty files will
need to be updated. Luckily, there are a couple of distros interested in
supporting Xen who I suspect will be able to help.

-- 
Hollis Blanchard
IBM Linux Technology Center

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