Subject: Re: LEDs, LCDs and so on (was Re: More SPARCbook insanity )
To: Michael <macallan18@earthlink.net>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 04/18/2005 11:42:22
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On Mon, Apr 18, 2005 at 07:50:29AM -0400, Michael wrote:
>=20

> I didn't think about supporting morse code, but imagine a kernel panic
> on a box without serial interface(s) or any other way to get a 2nd
> console, the display taken over by XFree which decides to panic.
> Flashing the panic message suddenly sounds like a good idea. Not /quite/
> what I was thinking about ( low-overhead but still generic interface for
> internal use by the kernel ) but why not give it a userland interface
> too. We'd probably need a few ioctl()s to gather information about a
> given indicator, like type, label ( well, most of the time we /will/
> know the original purpose. Doesn't necessary mean we'd stick to it
> though ), status ( on/off, in use by some kernel driver or not... )
> PCish Port 80 cards would also be something we could (ab)use, even on
> non-PC hardware.

I think the whole point of morse code is that you can flash a complete=20
panic message. :-) Yes, you have to know morse code, but a number of folks=
=20
still do and it'd be quite useful in this case.

Take care,

Bill

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