Re: boot disk problems

David Woodhouse (dwmw2@cam.ac.uk)
Sun, 11 Jan 1998 14:30:29 +0000


ebiederm+eric@npwt.net said:
> You need a /dev/console. Because the kernel uses the open system
> call at boot up to open it.

> Personally I think the need for this is a bad hack and someone was
> just lazy.

It was understandable when /dev/console was a symlink to whatever device was
supposed to be used. Now the console is a separate device, and the redirection
is handled internally by the kernel, perhaps it could be replaced by opening
device (5,1) instead.

I've just taken a look at the code, though, and it doesn't look like a very
simple operation. The kernel currently uses the sys_open syscall to open the
console, but would have to have a specific device open routine to generate a
fake dentry and fill it. I have a nasty suspicion that we're not allowed to
use the stack at that point either.

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David Woodhouse, Robinson College, CB3 9AN, England.   (+44) 0976 658355
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