A QR code created from the actual fault text would be super helpful. That way we can scan it and get the full error message (details and all) on another device without having to snap a picture or something. But not like windows does it, where it's a link to a defunct page. I'm taking about the actual text transcoded into a QR code.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
158 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
1261 readers
52 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I believe the main contributor for drm_panic wants to add one eventually. Here's what it might look like:
https://gitlab.com/kdj0c/panic_report/-/issues/1
Also it looks like the colours are configurable at compile time (with white on black default).
Ah man, I was hoping I'd be rickrolled
This looks EXACTLY as I imagined!
And windows shows it for a few seconds, never enough time to pick the phone.
Agreed. Probably the only ~~One of the~~ good thing about the win98 BSOD is that it crashed/froze along with the computer, and the PC required a hard reboot. Yeah, I know, not intentional, but it allowed me to fully read the message.
Edit: crossout
What's DRM in this context? Surely linux kernel doesn't do digital rights management?
Direct Rendering Manager. Part of Linux kernel to communicate with GPUs.
DRM came before DRM
Actually there is DRM in the kernel thanks to the HDMI blobs.
How do they handle the naming confusion?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Of all the things to take from windows, this is one of the better ones. Especially if it gets more info in the future. For less tech-literate users, a screen like this is a lot better than a hard to read dump to a terminal.
They should still include more debugging into.
I'd suggest some kind of "press this key to view debug information" text (or make it documented but not visible, to avoid people just pressing whatever button is written on the screen)
Why? People aren't idiots. If they don't know what it means they can look it up or ask for help.
Because for the bulk of users, unless they are power users, all they need to know is that things didn't work.
Things actually useful to have on the BSOD:
- distro-specific instructions for submitting a bug report
- option to reboot
- option to show debug info
- option to show a qr code that submits a bug report
- and, if configured by the distro or system admin, debug info
How are you going to use your computer when the kernel panics. That's kind of the problem, it panicked. It would be nice if it rebooted after a minute or two
Any information given would obviously be for use with another device.
QR code, for example. These are instructions or information about the crash, not links (except the QR code, which would obviously be read by another device).
How would a kernel that has already crashed handle keypresses?
I'm not an OS dev, I have no idea how stuff this low-level works.
The kernel art department really failed us here. Instead of a blue screen of death we could've had, I don't know, literally any other colour. I'd have gone with the Puce Screen of Panic.
How about black on white with a clear stack trace visible
That would be far too helpful.
Puce Screen of Panic
That's class
It needs more information about what went wrong. That's about as useful as a windows BSOD.
I thought for a minute that Linux now panics when trying to play DRM'd content
Did they have to go with such a loud shade of blue? It would look so much better on the eyes if it was a nice deep dark blue.
Tbh I don't even know why it needs to be blue or any colour at all.
Everyone knows what the blue screen is. This makes the implication when the screen does appear really obvious.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
Exactly
Black with big white text would be nice
Also see: systemd-bsod. Generates QR codes, too. I think blue for userspace boot-time errors and black for kernel stuff might be nice.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After being talked about for years of DRM panic handling and coming with a "Blue Screen of Death" solution for DRM/KMS drivers, Linux 6.10 is introducing a new DRM panic handler infrastructure for being able to display a message when a panic occurs.
With Linux 6.10 the initial DRM Panic code has landed as well as wiring up the DRM/KMS driver support for the SimpleDRM, MGAG200, IMX, and AST drivers.
For those curious what DRM Panic can look like in action, Red Hat engineer Javier Martinez Canillas shared a photo of the DRM Panic "Blue Screen of Death" in action.
A BeaglePlay single board computer was used and Javier posted to Mastodon of an example implementation:
It could be extended in the future with some operating systems having looked at QR codes for kernel error messages and other efforts for presenting more technical information while still being user-friendly.
On Linux 6.10+ with platforms having the DRM Panic driver support, this "Blue Screen of Death" functionality can be tested via a route such as echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger.
The original article contains 231 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 23%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
It's beautiful. I assume they'll dump the kernel oops log if there's any.
They should make it black instead.
I would have gone with red.. red = error
That would make it just as hard to read. Black on white offers the most contrast
Gold on purple offers more iirc
load more comments
(2 replies)