this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] kenkenken 82 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is not informative yet, but I like that it's blue. It's a quite recognizable color. Windows made it recognizable by having a lot of BSODs. People are asking why it couldn't be just black, but with non-black BSOD one can recognize it instantly without reading the text.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Just for reference, a few years back, (ex-Microsoft) David Plummer had this historical dive into the (MIPS) origin of the blue color, and how Windows is not blue anymore: https://youtu.be/KgqJJECQQH0?t=780

[–] kenkenken 6 points 2 months ago

Oh, thanks! I don't know much about the current state of Windows.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/KgqJJECQQH0?t=780

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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[–] Thorned_Rose 73 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Reminds me of my Windows XP days when I used to customise the hell out of everything I could... custom boot screen... and yes custom BSOD. Which I switched to red 🟥❗ One day my PC RSODs in front of a family member and he said, "Oh shit, that must be really bad if it's red instead of blue!" 😂

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

VMware went with Purple for their hypervisors so you get a PSOD instead. Always was fun when you’d hit the console for a server and get greeted by that instead of the yellow and black split screen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Ahh, that sweet yellow and black split screen 😌

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago (2 children)

A QR code created from the actual fault text would be super helpful. That way we can scan it and get the full error message (details and all) on another device without having to snap a picture or something. But not like windows does it, where it's a link to a defunct page. I'm taking about the actual text transcoded into a QR code.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I believe the main contributor for drm_panic wants to add one eventually. Here's what it might look like:

DRM panic handler panic screenshot https://gitlab.com/kdj0c/panic_report/-/issues/1

Link if you can't scan

Also it looks like the colours are configurable at compile time (with white on black default).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Ah man, I was hoping I'd be rickrolled

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

This looks EXACTLY as I imagined!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And windows shows it for a few seconds, never enough time to pick the phone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Agreed. Probably the only ~~One of the~~ good thing about the win98 BSOD is that it crashed/froze along with the computer, and the PC required a hard reboot. Yeah, I know, not intentional, but it allowed me to fully read the message.

Edit: crossout

[–] the_crotch 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You have to disable auto reboot on bsod

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (6 children)

What's DRM in this context? Surely linux kernel doesn't do digital rights management?

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 months ago

Direct Rendering Manager. Part of Linux kernel to communicate with GPUs.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago

Direct Rendering Manager

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Doesn't matter; I still get triggered by it every time anyway.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Actually there is DRM in the kernel thanks to the HDMI blobs.

[–] potatopotato 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fuck HDMI. The committee makes doing custom hardware near impossible unless you're a mega corp

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

It was made by Hollywood for Hollywood.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

It ought to be mandatory to write this out whenever talking about Linux. I've seen more than one person bash Linux in a public forum "because it has digital rights management built into the kernel" after they've misinterpreted some news headline.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Of all the things to take from windows, this is one of the better ones. Especially if it gets more info in the future. For less tech-literate users, a screen like this is a lot better than a hard to read dump to a terminal.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They should still include more debugging into.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I'd suggest some kind of "press this key to view debug information" text (or make it documented but not visible, to avoid people just pressing whatever button is written on the screen)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why? People aren't idiots. If they don't know what it means they can look it up or ask for help.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

People aren't idiots. If they don't know what it means they can look it up or ask for help.

Flip that. People are idiots. If they don't know what something means, they won't look it up. Not Desktop Linux users today but, definitely normies if Linux ever comes on a system they buy in the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because for the bulk of users, unless they are power users, all they need to know is that things didn't work.

Things actually useful to have on the BSOD:

  • distro-specific instructions for submitting a bug report
  • option to reboot
  • option to show debug info
  • option to show a qr code that submits a bug report
  • and, if configured by the distro or system admin, debug info
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The kernel art department really failed us here. Instead of a blue screen of death we could've had, I don't know, literally any other colour. I'd have gone with the Puce Screen of Panic.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

How about black on white with a clear stack trace visible

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Puce Screen of Panic

That's class

[–] mindbleach 11 points 2 months ago

Guru Meditation red.

Alternately: yellow-and-black ASCII approximating Evangelion's ALART.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago

It needs more information about what went wrong. That's about as useful as a windows BSOD.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What does drm mean in this context?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Direct Rendering Manager I believe

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Also see: systemd-bsod. Generates QR codes, too. I think blue for userspace boot-time errors and black for kernel stuff might be nice.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I thought for a minute that Linux now panics when trying to play DRM'd content

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Did they have to go with such a loud shade of blue? It would look so much better on the eyes if it was a nice deep dark blue.

Tbh I don't even know why it needs to be blue or any colour at all.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Everyone knows what the blue screen is. This makes the implication when the screen does appear really obvious.

No need to reinvent the wheel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Agree, the old windows blue screen would sear your retinas, could definitely be tuned down a bit.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


After being talked about for years of DRM panic handling and coming with a "Blue Screen of Death" solution for DRM/KMS drivers, Linux 6.10 is introducing a new DRM panic handler infrastructure for being able to display a message when a panic occurs.

With Linux 6.10 the initial DRM Panic code has landed as well as wiring up the DRM/KMS driver support for the SimpleDRM, MGAG200, IMX, and AST drivers.

For those curious what DRM Panic can look like in action, Red Hat engineer Javier Martinez Canillas shared a photo of the DRM Panic "Blue Screen of Death" in action.

A BeaglePlay single board computer was used and Javier posted to Mastodon of an example implementation:

It could be extended in the future with some operating systems having looked at QR codes for kernel error messages and other efforts for presenting more technical information while still being user-friendly.

On Linux 6.10+ with platforms having the DRM Panic driver support, this "Blue Screen of Death" functionality can be tested via a route such as echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger.


The original article contains 231 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 23%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It's beautiful. I assume they'll dump the kernel oops log if there's any.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (5 children)

They should make it black instead.

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