linux kernel - installation accessibility improvement

[Jason White]

Tony Baechler  <blinux-list at redhat.com> wrote:
>I could be totally wrong here, but doesn't the kernel have an option to use
>a serial console?  I vaguely remember a parameter to send messages out a
>serial port, but I could be imagining things.  I know for a fact that
>FreeBSD supports this as I've seen it in the install docs.  Server
>motherboards also support this or something similar.
>

Grub 2 supports it, as documented in the manual.

>I think you're overlooking a few things.  First, many machines don't have
>serial ports, so a serial console wouldn't do any good.  Second, if you do
>have a serial port, it's just that, a single serial port.  Therefore, it
>would be impossible to plug in a speech snythesizer, Braille display and
>serial console on one machine.  Finally, USB wouldn't be supported that
>early in the boot process, so output wouldn't go to a USB Braille display.

Interestingly, however, UEFI is said to support console redirection.
http://embedded.communities.intel.com/community/en/embassadors/blog/2011/01/18/ask-a-bios-guy-uefi-gui

If this can be done over the network, or if there are UEFI drivers for USB to
serial converters, the need for a traditional serial port goes away.
Apparently, UEFI offers a much more sophisticated environment, including
drivers, than BIOS did.

I agree that the user will need another machine which can run a terminal
emulator in order to gain access. If wireless drivers were written, this other
host might even be mobile.

We're still living in a situation in which people tend to have multiple
systems, e.g., a desktop machine and a mobile phone or tablet. We haven't
reached the point at which the mobile devices take over, and it will be
fascinating to see whether this ultimately happens.