console: allow to retain boot console via boot option keep_bootcon

On some architectures, the boot process involves de-registering the boot
console (early boot), initialize drivers and then re-register the console.

This mechanism introduces a window in which no printk can happen on the
console and messages are buffered and then printed once the new console is
available.

If a kernel crashes during this window, all it's left on the boot console
is "console [foo] enabled, bootconsole disabled" making debug of the crash
rather 'interesting'.

By adding "keep_bootcon" option, do not unregister the boot console, that
will allow to printk everything that is happening up to the crash.

The option is clearly meant only for debugging purposes as it introduces
lots of duplicated info printed on console, but will make bug report from
users easier as it doesn't require a kernel build just to figure out where
we crash.

Signed-off-by: Fabio M. Di Nitto <fabbione@fabbione.net>
Acked-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: Greg KH <gregkh@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
This commit is contained in:
Fabio M. Di Nitto 2011-03-22 16:34:20 -07:00 committed by Linus Torvalds
parent 26297607e0
commit 7bf693951a
2 changed files with 21 additions and 1 deletions

View file

@ -872,6 +872,12 @@ bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes can also be entirely omitted.
If specified, z/VM IUCV HVC accepts connections
from listed z/VM user IDs only.
keep_bootcon [KNL]
Do not unregister boot console at start. This is only
useful for debugging when something happens in the window
between unregistering the boot console and initializing
the real console.
i2c_bus= [HW] Override the default board specific I2C bus speed
or register an additional I2C bus that is not
registered from board initialization code.

View file

@ -1316,6 +1316,18 @@ void console_start(struct console *console)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(console_start);
static int __read_mostly keep_bootcon;
static int __init keep_bootcon_setup(char *str)
{
keep_bootcon = 1;
printk(KERN_INFO "debug: skip boot console de-registration.\n");
return 0;
}
early_param("keep_bootcon", keep_bootcon_setup);
/*
* The console driver calls this routine during kernel initialization
* to register the console printing procedure with printk() and to
@ -1463,7 +1475,9 @@ void register_console(struct console *newcon)
* users know there might be something in the kernel's log buffer that
* went to the bootconsole (that they do not see on the real console)
*/
if (bcon && ((newcon->flags & (CON_CONSDEV | CON_BOOT)) == CON_CONSDEV)) {
if (bcon &&
((newcon->flags & (CON_CONSDEV | CON_BOOT)) == CON_CONSDEV) &&
!keep_bootcon) {
/* we need to iterate through twice, to make sure we print
* everything out, before we unregister the console(s)
*/