NetBSD Problem Report #56185

From www@netbsd.org  Mon May 17 21:13:48 2021
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Date: Mon, 17 May 2021 21:13:47 +0000 (UTC)
From: lingvofactory@gmail.com
Reply-To: lingvofactory@gmail.com
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: Kernel notifications break installation
X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0

>Number:         56185
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       Kernel notifications break installation
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon May 17 21:15:00 +0000 2021
>Last-Modified:  Mon Jun 07 03:15:01 +0000 2021
>Originator:     Andrei Melnikov
>Release:        Up to 9.2
>Organization:
private
>Environment:
ASUS K70ID, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
>Description:
Probing notifications from the kernel are forwarded to console. It happens almost every minute, breaks the interface of the installation program to the unreadable and can even be some sort of security threat when it messes up the password prompt. Here's the screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12YTQt7t8q5mX-X0uJ-sitTTKJWg5xSat
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Nkmpwfg6ybkpLfGHCbnkVwVIhMLgV-q9
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MPKRrFCHCiBOwDWzuTA61wBcvK1TuDXn
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t0HG8NRywz6CmYZx0CBk8bx07WS3nV5h
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mM3cgyJZL2y20XX0B2T8iaJ9kMjx3kU5
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZdK8pzIgGJ1PmXDwxVBHhvkXOdE-kLcL
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1r5u26pPmYx6Eeq_FZsnT4zrgDj6SnaC6
>How-To-Repeat:
Depends on the motherboard, I guess. Or just ask me to do the test.
>Fix:
Turn off the kernel notifications in the installation kernel or re-direct them to a different terminal than that responsible for installation.

>Audit-Trail:
From: nia <nia@NetBSD.org>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/56185: Kernel notifications break installation
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 09:48:36 +0000

 On Mon, May 17, 2021 at 09:15:00PM +0000, lingvofactory@gmail.com wrote:
 > >How-To-Repeat:
 > Depends on the motherboard, I guess. Or just ask me to do the test.

 I think it should be easy to reproduece on any laptop (just play with
 the AC adapter). Buggy USB mice and keyboards help as well - they
 like to disconnect and reconnect themselves constantly.

 > >Fix:
 > Turn off the kernel notifications in the installation kernel or
 > re-direct them to a different terminal than that responsible for installation.

 Might be a good idea to use a different tty for sysinst on
 standard x86 images and switch to it, but it's not a solution
 that works with every architecture (some only create one tty),
 or installation method (e.g. serial).

From: Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/56185: Kernel notifications break installation
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 12:28:56 +0200

 On Wed, May 19, 2021 at 09:50:01AM +0000, nia wrote:
 >  Might be a good idea to use a different tty for sysinst on
 >  standard x86 images and switch to it, but it's not a solution
 >  that works with every architecture (some only create one tty),
 >  or installation method (e.g. serial).

 Sysinst already plays with TIOCCONS while running external programs,
 but the code is barely commented and I don't understand the state handling
 idea behind it.

 I also don't understand the kernel side, I wish we would have some global
 call that just mutes all kernel messages (w/o requiring an open tty to
 redirect it to).

 Running sysinst on e.g. ttyE1 and having kernel messages show up on ttyE0
 would be a workaround, but:

  - it does not work for serial console
  - it hides the kernel messages from the parts of sysinst that want to 
    know if there have been any (though that parts maybe should be reworked
    anyway, I had to fix kernel bugs to quieten some common operations and
    make sysinst work as designed)
  - it is a tricky setup to be replicated and tested on tons of different
    install media


 Martin

From: "Andrei M." <lingvofactory@gmail.com>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: install-manager@netbsd.org, gnats-admin@netbsd.org, netbsd-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/56185: Kernel notifications break installation
Date: Sat, 22 May 2021 02:11:05 +0300

 =D1=81=D1=80, 19 =D0=BC=D0=B0=D1=8F 2021 =D0=B3. =D0=B2 13:30, Martin Husem=
 ann <martin@duskware.de>:
 >
 > The following reply was made to PR install/56185; it has been noted by GN=
 ATS.
 >
 >  Running sysinst on e.g. ttyE1 and having kernel messages show up on ttyE=
 0
 >  would be a workaround, but:
 >
 >   - it does not work for serial console
 >   - it hides the kernel messages from the parts of sysinst that want to
 >     know if there have been any (though that parts maybe should be rework=
 ed
 >     anyway, I had to fix kernel bugs to quieten some common operations an=
 d
 >     make sysinst work as designed)
 >   - it is a tricky setup to be replicated and tested on tons of different
 >     install media
 >
 >
 >  Martin
 >

 Seeing kernel messages is an important thing indeed, but the way it's
 "done" in this case goes against all principles of visual interface
 design.
 Isn't it possible to split the sysinst window into two, showing the
 kernel output f.ex. in the bottom window and the installation stuff in
 the top one? (like a stripped down version of 'screen'?)

 Andrei

From: David Holland <dholland-bugs@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/56185: Kernel notifications break installation
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2021 03:12:58 +0000

 On Fri, May 21, 2021 at 11:15:02PM +0000, Andrei M. wrote:
  >  Seeing kernel messages is an important thing indeed, but the way it's
  >  "done" in this case goes against all principles of visual interface
  >  design.

 That's because they're just getting printed to the screen over top of
 the user interface :-|

  >  Isn't it possible to split the sysinst window into two, showing the
  >  kernel output f.ex. in the bottom window and the installation stuff in
  >  the top one? (like a stripped down version of 'screen'?)

 Probably, yes. This would require sysinst to open a pty and capture
 the kernel messages to it, because of how that works, and apparently
 there's already code doing some of that for other reasons that it
 would need to cooperate with.

 good idea, though :-)

 (Also, I've long wanted the console to work like the console in the
 origianl Quake and some other games like that, where messages print in
 the corner and disappear by default but you can summon them back with
 a hotkey... but this is a Big Deal, which is why I've been wanting it
 for >20 years and not doing it)

 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland@netbsd.org

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