signal to PID 1 from serial console like KeyboardRequest or CAD

From: Jeremy Jackson
Date: Fri Mar 25 2011 - 14:18:09 EST


Hi,

Sent to linux-console with no reply for over a week...

I ran into a problem recently on a Linux server with a remote serial console. /sbin/init (actually Upstart) was in a state where nothing (useful) was running. I had to power cycle the machine to get back to the boot prompt. This has the side-effect of triggering raid rebuilds.

It would be nice to have what Ctrl-Alt-Del does at the VGA console with PS/2 or USB keyboard. This sends a SIGINT to PID 1, and most distros have this set to do "shutdown -r now" which attempts a clean reboot.

Once upon a time there was KeyboardRequest, which would send a SIGWINCH to PID 1 (when pressing Alt-UP_arrow?). I don't see any sign of this feature in Linux 2.6.32 though.

Looking at the Sysrq handlers in the kernel I don't see any keystrokes that send SIGINT to PID 1 either.

So, I'm wondering if it makes sense to add a Sysrq key to send a signal to PID1 ?

--
Coplanar Networks
http://www.coplanar.net
(519)489-4903
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