Re: Ideas for v2.1

Andreas Koppenhoefer (koppenas@koppenas.dialup.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de)
12 Jun 1996 09:32:11 +0200


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>>>>> "AT" == Aaron Tiensivu <tiensivu@pilot.msu.edu> writes:
AT>
AT> Ideas for 2.1 (subtitled "Things that make you go, hmmmm...") :
AT> [...]
AT>
AT> o Keeping the name 'linux' instead of 'lignux'

Who wants to change that? I think only emacs developers have used
lignux so far.

AT> o This might sound campy, but it might be useful. Colorization of some of
AT> the boot-up displays. This way, you don't end up with the added waste
AT> of a graphical display [like Win95], but it still looks a little more
AT> 'jazzier'. Whether this is possible at all, I'm not sure. It just popped in
AT> my head.

I like the idea of having important messages highlighted (red) while
others informational messages are dimmed (green). What about assigning
colours and text attributes to each kernel log level like this:
Color & Attributes Level # Description
red highlighted blink EMERG 0 system is unusable
red highlighted inverse ALERT 1 action must be taken immediately
red highlighted CRIT 2 critical conditions
yellow highlighted ERR 3 error conditions
yellow WARNING 4 warning conditions
green NOTICE 5 normal but significant condition
(normal text) INFO 6 informational
dimmed blue? DEBUG 7 debug-level messages

Maybe this is not a kernel issue. IMHO colorisation belongs into
klogd! On the other hand it must be in kernel to take effect with boot
messages...
I'm not sure about the use of blinking and inverse.

AT> o [...] Also shorten display width of some messages so that they will
AT> fit snugly into an 80 column line, instead of partially bleeding onto
AT> the next line below it.
AT> Before:
AT> Linux version 2.0.0 (root@lucretia) (gcc version 2.7.2.l.3) #7- Sun Jun 9
AT> 12:23:42 EDT 1996
AT>
AT> After:
AT> Linux 2.0.0 (root@lucretia) (gcc 2.7.2.l.3) #7-Jun 9 12:23:42 EDT 1996

Indeed 'version' should be left out. But look at that nasty '-': your
source tree contains an empty file linux/.name: remove it, recompile
and that minus will turn into a space. Suppose you've upgraded kernel
sources by applying patches and didn't use patch option '-E' (removing
empty files) and you never did a 'make mrproper'.

AT> o Allowing the video mode code at boot-up to be optional [the whole
AT> "Press <space> for choices", video card probing, etc].

Just add 'vga=0' to lilo.conf or say 'rdev -v /vmlinuz 0' to get rid
of that message. The code for video probing is still in kernel with
that. But, your video must get initialized somehow.

We need an other one...

o serial console support

o make VGA/SVGA/CGA/etc. video and console support
optional. Together with serial console support, it's completely
useless without keyboard and monitor.

- Andreas

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-- 
Andreas Koppenhoefer, Student der Universitaet Stuttgart, BR Deutschland
Franz-Schubert-Str. 2, 97616 Bad Neustadt, +49 9771 7943; PGP-Key available at
URL <http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/menschen/ako/impressum.html>; Mail:
<koppenas@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>, <akoppenhoefer@schweinfurt.netsurf.de>