linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 4.19 66/78] fbcon: remove soft scrollback code

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Date:   Wed, 16 Sep 2020 11:07:23 +0200
From:   Pavel Machek <pavel@...x.de>
To:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
Cc:     Pavel Machek <pavel@...x.de>, jikos@...e.cz, vojtech@...e.cz,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, stable@...r.kernel.org,
        Yuan Ming <yuanmingbuaa@...il.com>, Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>,
        Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <b.zolnierkie@...sung.com>,
        Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@...ll.ch>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4.19 66/78] fbcon: remove soft scrollback code

Hi!

> > > From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
> > > 
> > > commit 50145474f6ef4a9c19205b173da6264a644c7489 upstream.
> > > 
> > > This (and the VGA soft scrollback) turns out to have various nasty small
> > > special cases that nobody really is willing to fight.  The soft
> > > scrollback code was really useful a few decades ago when you typically
> > > used the console interactively as the main way to interact with the
> > > machine, but that just isn't the case any more.
> > > 
> > > So it's not worth dragging along.
> > 
> > It is still useful.
> > 
> > In particular, kernel is now very verbose, so important messages
> > during bootup scroll away. It is way bigger deal when you can no
> > longer get to them using shift-pageup.
> > 
> > fsck is rather verbose, too, and there's no easy way to run that under
> > X terminal... and yes, that makes scrollback very useful, too.
> > 
> > So, I believe we'll need to fix this. I guess I could do it. I also
> > guess I'll not have to, because SuSE or RedHat will want to fix it.
> > 
> > Anyway, this really should not be merged into stable.
> 
> It's merged into the stable trees that _I_ have to maintain.  If you
> want to revert it for trees you maintain and wish to keep secure, that's
> up to you.  But it's something that I _STRONGLY_ do not advise doing.

I believe it will need to be reverted in Linus' tree, too. In fact,
the patch seems to be a way for Linus to find a maintainer for the
code, and I already stated I can do it. Patch is so new it was not
even in -rc released by Linus.

> See the email recently on oss-devel for one such reason why this was
> removed...

Would you have a link for that?
								Pavel
-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      Managing Director: Wolfgang Denk
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany

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