In message <Pine.NEB.4.63.0602181616280.18565@discovery.invisible.ca>, "Jared D
. McNeill" writes:
>On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>> I haven't looked at your kernel code, but couldn't it default to 'no
>> splash screen', even when the driver is present?
>
>vesafb works fine without a splash screen. This functionality is only 
>enabled if options SPLASHSCREEN and SPLASHSCREEN_PROGRESS are in your 
>kernel config.

Hmm?
>
>> For another approach, perhaps things should be changed so that the
>> wsconsctl is harmless even if done unconditionally, without the kernel
>> drivers.
>
>If the above options aren't in the kernel, the wsconsctl calls have no 
>effect. I even redirect their output to /dev/null so you'll never notice 
>that they're being called.
>
What about the return code?  Will that cause a problem?

If not, then I don't see the problem with an rc.conf variable.  If you 
wanted to do it really correctly, print a warning if the variable 
indicates splash screen and it's not enabled in the kernel.  (That 
could benefit from a non-zero return code.)

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