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From: miquels@cistron-office.nl (Miquel van Smoorenburg)
Subject: Re: Support for serial console on legacy free machines
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 15:54:38 +0000 (UTC)
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In article <000701c119cd$ebf0c720$294b82ce@connecttech.com>,
Stuart MacDonald <stuartm@connecttech.com> wrote:
>C) serial.c contains a completely separate serial console driver,
>complete with its own init routine. Which meshes with the current
>suggestion that the "serial driver" isn't used, and pci init happens
>too late.

That's because you expect printk() to work even if interrupts
don't (yet), so there's a mini driver in there that works in polled
mode and is completely anatomous (sp?).

Also, the `real' serial driver only works when /dev/ttySx is opened by
a process - it needs a lot of context (file handles etc) that is
dependent on stuff that is only available after the system has booted.

Mike.
-- 
"dselect has a user interface which scares small children"
	-- Theodore Tso, on debian-devel

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