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kern/44242: Minor but useful improvement to text output from NetBSD debugger



>Number:         44242
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       Minor but useful improvement to text output from NetBSD 
>debugger
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    kern-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Dec 16 08:45:00 +0000 2010
>Originator:     Randolf Richardson
>Release:        5.1
>Organization:
Inter-Corporate Computer & Network Services, Inc.
>Environment:
Not applicable.
>Description:
Today someone in IRC was wondering how they could determine what the source of 
the problem was when a breakpoint message appeared on their console when the 
debugger fired up.

Eventually someone pointed out that CTRL-Alt-Esc can start the debugger and 
then the user realized that this was most likely the cause of their breakpoint 
message.

The problem is that the user didn't know that they had accidentally started the 
debugger and were worried that something might be wrong with their hardware.

SUGGESTION
----------

My suggestion is to update the debugger in NetBSD by inserting an extra line of 
text when it starts as the first line, which indicates how the debugger was 
started.  When it's due to keyboard use, I suggest this as the very first line 
of the debugger output (or last line before the debugger prompt):

*** You pressed CTRL-ALT-ESC to start the debugger.  To continue to NetBSD, 
type the letter "c" then press the Enter key. ***

For those users who don't understand how to use a debugger, this will be a very 
helpful message which will make it very easy to continue without losing 
something important that they're working on.

>How-To-Repeat:
Press CTRL-Alt-Esc accidentally (humour not intended).

>Fix:
Use the debugger's Continue ("c") command (if you know how; many users don't).



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