Bug 20025 – gentoo kernel support for serial consoles is broken

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Nick Brown 2003-04-26 20:44:22 UTC]

Link above gives all my deatils.  SmegTheLight's post suggest the the support for serial 
consoles is broken in the gentoo kernel. I'm certain that I've followed the Serial Cosole Howto 
to the letter (correct kernel build config options, correct kernel command line etc ) 
 
I can provide my kernel .config file if its required. 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

[Comment 1 Nick Brown 2003-04-26 21:38:37 UTC]

I have confirmed that VT stuff breaks serial console support. See; 
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=298354#298354 
 
I'm using kernel linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r2. 

[Comment 2 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-04-27 03:03:48 UTC]

thanks for the info. i'll see what i can find in order to resolve this. 
 
Jay 

[Comment 3 Nick Brown 2003-04-30 09:17:59 UTC]

Tested the stock kernel.org kernel and enabling VT console support does not break serial 
console support. So this problem is specific to the gentoo kernel. 

[Comment 4 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-04-30 10:25:53 UTC]

looks like the O3 issue is also affecting this. I'll upload a patch for testing in a bit. 
 
Thanks, 
 
Jay 

[Comment 5 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-04-30 11:26:14 UTC]

Created attachment 11329 [details, diff]
test patch

recommend to run 'make mrproper' prior to patch or even better 'rm -rf
linux-2.4.20-gentoo-sources-r3/' then emerge gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r3 again.

after:
patch -p1 -s -N -E -d /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-sources-r3/ <
bug20025_fix.diff

let me know how this goes.

Thanks,

Jay

[Comment 6 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-04-30 11:27:59 UTC]

sorry, same steps will work on gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r2 (even r1).

just replace then names in the examples for patching/cleaning up.

Jay

[Comment 7 Nick Brown 2003-05-01 08:26:02 UTC]

Removing all the compiler optimatsions does indeed appear to fix the problem. 
Thanks.  
And I though going with pentium mmx optimisations was safer while setting up before moving 
over to Via C3, but if I'd gone with Via C3 straight off I wouldn't have had this problem as there 
are no optimisations in it compiler options. :-) 
Any how the removing the optimasations fror the other processor types does seem prevent 
VT support screwing up serial console support. 
Into which gentoo kernel will you commit this fix? and when will that kernel be the marked as 
stable for x86? 
 
thanks again, 
Nick 

[Comment 8 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-05-01 10:24:17 UTC]

i will put this in gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r2/r3 & latest pfeifer-sources. 2.4.20-r2 is already 
stable and will stay stable. 
 
Jay 

[Comment 9 Jay Pfeifer (RETIRED) 2003-05-05 12:33:22 UTC]

well, i am changing my mind on including this fix in the past releases. i have done 
some major enhancements to the new base destined for gentoo-sources and 
would rather dedicate my efforts there. pfeifer-sources-2.4.20_pre8 and later 
have the fix. Plus, there is a patch here for users that have this issue on 
gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r1-r3 that they can apply (if they choose not to upgrade 
for now). I don't want the headache of md5sum changes (on the exact same rev 
as far as portage is concerned) on the older source(s) because of the inclusion of 
new patches. And I am sure that most users do not check the Changelogs. I do 
see gentoo-sources having a new release soon based upon the patches in 
pfeifer-sources-2.4.20_pre10 (which is in portage). 
 
Thanks, 
 
Jay