Re: [Xen-devel] console questions

[Aron Griffis <aron@xxxxxx>]

Keir Fraser wrote:  [Tue Aug 07 2007, 03:59:42AM EDT]
> On 6/8/07 22:29, "Aron Griffis" <aron@xxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > 1. xencons=xvc works and makes more sense than clobbering ttyS0 by
> >    default.  Is there some reason that the default for xencons is
> >    still ttyS on dom0?  Sure hvc is coming, but would it be reasonable
> >    to change the default for xencons in the meantime?
> 
> Now done for dom0 and domU. Users will need to change their inittab to getty
> xvc0, or need to place 'xencons=tty' on their kernel command line.

Thanks, that's great.  I am mystified by something though: How is
/dev/console hooked up to /dev/xvc0 by default?  If I boot dom0 and
omit both xencons and console kernel parameters, /dev/console is
clearly being hooked up to /dev/xvc0.  But I'm not seeing how this
happens.

In fact, arch/ia64/kernel/setup.c assumes that the default for
xencons is ttyS and calls add_preferred_console("ttyS", 0, NULL);
I would expect this to break things, but somehow it doesn't.  This
makes me wonder if that code is necessary at all.

> > 2. xencons=xvc1 and upward is accepted by the kernel, but it just
> >    changes the userland naming.  The major/minor remains the same at
> >    204/191.  What's the point of this?  Is there any reason to allow
> >    anything other than xencons=xvc or xencons=xvc0?
> 
> What's the better alternative? Needlessly penalise a typo?

I wasn't suggesting castigation...  Mostly I wanted to understand if
there was a hidden reason for supporting xvc1 and higher.  The fact
that xencons=xvc1 will make the console show up in a different place
makes distro support more interesting.

Aron

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel