Subject: Re: Musings on ddb..
To: Michael van Elst <mlelstv@serpens.de>
From: Iain Hibbert <plunky@rya-online.net>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/30/2006 14:44:35
On Mon, 30 Jan 2006, Michael van Elst wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 07:52:21PM +1030, Brett Lymn wrote:
> > If you are not at the console and the kernel panics and drops to ddb
> > then that is the same as a hang if you were remotely accessing the
> > machine.

also appears to be a hang if you are using a different wsdisplay.  I have
found this when I've made a mistake (eg forgot to take a KASSERT out that
was no longer an error - mm, somebody told me about that it wasnt me :)
and the machine seemingly locks up - its perplexing until you look at the
dmesg.

> If that is a problem, we could add a timeout to the DDB session.
>
> When the timeout expires the machine reboots.
> When the first command is accepted by DDB the timeout is disabled.

I admit before I start that I havent looked at the wscons internals, but
is it possible when DDB kicks in to switch the console to the current
display? (or is it the other way around?)

I appreciate that this could make it hard to debug wscons itself (would
need to be switchable in that case) but most other times it would be very
useful.

iain