In message <1140278819.485.11.camel@localhost>, "Jared D. McNeill" writes:
>On Sat, 2006-02-18 at 15:03 -0500, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>> simply be conditional on some variable in rc.conf?  
>
>You're right. The problem is that the kernel and rc.conf values need to
>be in sync. With the kernel options enabled, you need to disable the
>splash screen from userland otherwise you won't get any text on screen
>0.
>
>I'm looking for a more elegant solution here before I commit any /etc/rc
>changes.
>
I haven't looked at your kernel code, but couldn't it default to 'no 
splash screen', even when the driver is present?  

For another approach, perhaps things should be changed so that the 
wsconsctl is harmless even if done unconditionally, without the kernel 
drivers.

(What this is really about is that I *really* dislike features that 
require site-specific source changes.  They're (somewhat) better in a 
world of open source and CVS than they were when I was first learning 
that lesson; they're still not great.  I have a strong preference for 
pristine source trees; in fact, I'd really like it if I didn't have to 
keep my kernel configs in sys/arch/i386/conf, so I could safely wipe 
out and replace my entire source tree as needed.)

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb