Re: [PATCH 2/2] printk/console: Allow to disable console output by using console="" or console=null

From: Sergey Senozhatsky
Date: Wed Nov 11 2020 - 20:36:51 EST


On (20/11/11 14:54), Petr Mladek wrote:
> The commit 48021f98130880dd74 ("printk: handle blank console arguments
> passed in.") prevented crash caused by empty console= parameter value.
>
> Unfortunately, this value is widely used on Chromebooks to disable
> the console output. The above commit caused performance regression
> because the messages were pushed on slow console even though nobody
> was watching it.
>
> Use ttynull driver explicitly for console="" and console=null
> parameters. It has been created for exactly this purpose.
>
> It causes that preferred_console is set. As a result, ttySX and ttyX
> are not used as a fallback. And only ttynull console gets registered by
> default.
>
> It still allows to register other consoles either by additional console=
> parameters or SPCR. It prevents regression because it worked this way even
> before. Also it is a sane semantic. Preventing output on all consoles
> should be done another way, for example, by introducing mute_console
> parameter.
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20201006025935.GA597@jagdpanzerIV.localdomain
> Suggested-by: Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@xxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxx>

-ss