linux-kernel - Re: More than 256/512 glyphs on the Liinux console

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Message-ID: <Z73sqvjlbJ54FCtH@MAC.fritz.box>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2025 16:15:38 +0000
From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@....de>
To: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@...nel.org>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
  Simona Vetter <simona@...ll.ch>, linux-serial@...r.kernel.org,
  linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: More than 256/512 glyphs on the Liinux console

Hello, Jiri.

On Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 21:08:50 +0100, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> On 24. 02. 25, 19:22, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > Hello, Greg.

> > On Sun, Feb 23, 2025 at 08:47:53 +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> >> On Sat, Feb 22, 2025 at 03:36:12PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> >>> On Sat, Feb 22, 2025 at 09:48:32 +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:

> > [ .... ]

> >>> But I think you are also asking why I use the console at all.  That's
> >>> a fair question which I'll try to answer.

> >> I'm not disputing using the console, it's the vt layer that I'm talking
> >> about.  The DRM developers have the long-term goal of getting rid of
> >> CONFIG_VT which will remove a ton of mess that we have overall.
> >> DRM-based consoles should provide the same functionality that a vt
> >> console does today.  If not, please let them know so that the remaining
> >> corner cases can be resolved.

> > Does a DRM based console exist at the moment?  I spent quite some time
> > looking for it yesterday, but found nothing.

> I didn't read the thread, but are you looking e.g. for kmscon?

No, I wasn't.  I was looking for a drm replacement for the drivers/tty/vt
code inside the kernel.  I may have misunderstood Greg when he referred
to a replacement which uses drm.

kmscon doesn't seem to be a suitable replacement for the Linux console.
According to Wikipedia, it stopped being maintained ~10 years ago.  Also,
it is a user level program, not a kernel level program, so will only become
active later in the boot process than the current console, which is not
a good thing.  It might well steal key sequences from application
programs, the way X and X window managers do, but maybe it doesn't.  On
Gentoo, kmscon is "masked", i.e. strongly recommended not to be
installed, and installable only after taking special measures.

> -- 
> js
> suse labs

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).