Boot messages (Was: Re: Ideas for v2.1)

Cees de Groot (C.deGroot@inter.nl.net)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 12:14:08 +0200


tiensivu@pilot.msu.edu said:
> o Making the below messages optional. These are nice for
> distribution packages, but most people don't change their hardware
> that often to make it worthwhile each time you boot-up.

> This processor honours the WP bit even when in supervisor mode. Good.
> Checking 386/387 coupling... Ok, fpu using exception 16 error
> reporting. Checking 'hlt' instruction... Ok.

IMO that's the only thing left that SCO does better: it just builds a small
table on your monitor telling you that it detected your hardware and where it
resides, and nothing else. I vote for suppressing _all_ this mess unless
somebody boots with the ``verbose'' option. Something like:

bootmsg=silent - Say nothing
bootmsg=default - Show a summary
bootmsg=verbose - Show what it shows now

Summary could look like:

Proc 1: 486 (GENUINE INTEL)
Memory: 24Mb mem, 23200k left, 256k cache
PCI bus: <chipset info>
Video: S3 <hardware info>
SCSI: NCR <hardware info>
bus 0 id 1 lun 0: CD-ROM Toshiba (scd0)
bus 0 id 3 lun 0: DISK Seagate (sda)
bus 0 id 5 lun 0: DISK Quantum (sdb)
bus 0 id 6 lun 0: TAPE WangDAT (st0)

or something more tabular. All in all one line per hardware item detected,
nothing more (and nothing less - I'd like to know that everything is still
alive).

Kernel interface: depending on bootmsg level, printk is silenced (until, say,
init is run); an extra call show_hardware() builds the summary table (or is
converted to plain printk if bootmsg=verbose).

-- 
Cees de Groot                                        <C.deGroot@inter.NL.net>
OpenLink Software, Inc.