Non X console removal

[Keith Roberts]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Alan Cox wrote:

> To: For testers of Fedora Core development releases
>     <fedora-test-list at redhat.com>
> From: Alan Cox <alan at redhat.com>
> Subject: Re: Non X console removal
> 
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 11:37:16AM -0400, Matthias Clasen wrote:
>> Colin merely stated his opinion (which is widely shared) that the vt
>> subsystem is one of the most horrible kernel subsystems, api-wise and
>> otherwise, and the world would be a better place without it.
>
> Let me explain as tty layer maintainer exactly how many emails I've had from
> Red Hat employees or Fedora developers wanting to discuss the VT consoles
>
> - One - and that was about saving fonts over a hibernate.
>
> You actually need the vt layer for a few things
> - boot up
> - a way to cope when X breaks again (most updates on some boxes)
> - a way to undo things when selinux screws up on a package update and breaks
>  pam
> - a way for end users to be guided for debugging problems
> - a way to reliably see kernel messages
>
> Longer term the last one should go away, but the others won't.
>
> Users don't need to know about the VT consoles unless it breaks and there is no
> reason to fire up more than a single console I suspect, but you do need the one
> hidden console somewhere for the user to be able to reach when stuff breaks.
>
> Now as the API - it has interesting design features that go back ten years to
> a different model of usage. Right now that code is all getting revamped, fine
> grain locked and tidied so now is a very good time for the distro folks to
> produce and send out a "What we hate about the console and how we think it
> could be addressed" email...
>
> Alan

Thanks for clarifying that Alan. I was going to suggest why 
not update the code base, but it seems like it's going to be 
done anyway :)

Kind Regards,

Keith Roberts