Linux distros are about to get killer Windows feature: The Blue Screen of Death

theandrewbailey 2 years ago |

I've seen a few articles on this systemd BSOD feature, but none have had screenshots. Google doesn't come up with anything.

SushiHippie 2 years ago | |

I've found an image of it online: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38563062

scohesc 2 years ago |

For someone who isn't experienced in how Linux crashes - what currently happens when there's an error that can't be recovered from? Does the device just restart?

nine_k 2 years ago | |

A kernel panic handler writes down a piece of stack, a piece of code, contents of registers, and some minimal message. Normally the machine does not reboot, so that you could photograph the console maybe.

(The screen normally remains white on black. The console can as well be a COM port.)

You can configure it to auto-reboot by putting a timeout value to /proc/sys/kernel/panic.

treadmill 2 years ago | | |

This is actually useful and portable (e.g. also works serial console). QR Codes are not.

I actually scrolled up to check this was not an April fools article.

nine_k 2 years ago | | |

I don't see why the handler could not go back to textual mode is the console is serial.

Some devices have neither a serial console nor a text-mode screen powered by BIOS; all they have is a framebuffer device. There a QR code could work really well. No need to have any font data, for instance.

SushiHippie 2 years ago |

Anyone know how I could try this out? (I have systemd 255)

ElijahLynn 2 years ago | |

From https://github.com/systemd/systemd/releases/tag/v255

"A new component "systemd-bsod" has been added, which can show logged error messages full screen, if they have a log level of LOG_EMERG log level. This component is experimental and its public interface is subject to change."

First step is to log something with LOG_EMERG level. Then maybe make the system crash?

SushiHippie 2 years ago | | |

I just tried the repro steps for this issue [0]. Which seem to be the same as the test suite does it [1]. But nothing happens :/

[0] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/29478 [1] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/test/units/test...

EDIT: just found an image, of how it looks https://0x0.st/H3qM.png

extraduder_ire 2 years ago | | |

Ahh, I had heard people complaining about systemd having a qr code generator included a few years ago.

Hopefully this one can do something useful, like include details of the actual crash so you don't have to transcribe them. Unlike the windows one, that's hardcoded in.

oofdere 2 years ago | | |

DO NOT SCAN THE QR CODE!

biggest mistake of my life

opello 2 years ago | | |

If you don't recognize the YouTube ID by now... :)

dQw4w9WgXcQ

_lvbh 2 years ago | | |

I wasn’t gonna bother doing that. You made me do it…

Grimblewald 2 years ago | | |

What is it?

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2 years ago | | |

What am I supposed to scan a qr code with if my computer just crashed?

itishappy 2 years ago | | |

You use your computer to scan QR codes? How?

I've always assumed most people use their phone where the cameras have QR functionality built in.

ElijahLynn 2 years ago | | |

By using the phones camera app.

hulitu 2 years ago |

> New systemd update will bring Windows’ infamous Blue Screen of Death to Linux

Another feature worth porting is systemd spawning around 100 processes, just like svchost.exe. /s

dddavid 2 years ago |

Fantastic idea IMO

herewulf 2 years ago |

This is such a pointless feature. I have several daily driver Linux systems. They run for months at a time, sometimes years. The only time I see a kernel panic is if the hardware is bad or I did something wrong (misconfiguration).

Years ago I had a dual boot system with bad RAM and on Windows it would regularly blue screen, on Linux it was fine. Took a long time to figure out what the actual problem was because Linux is just so rock solid.

And no, I don't use any systemd based distros on my daily drivers.

PrayagBhakar 2 years ago | |

Not everyone runs Linux systems like a Sys Admin. Some folks use it to play games on their steamdeck or to give live to older hardware that can’t run windows/osx anymore. Others don’t even care what they’re running as long as it can open chrome.

BSOD is very clearly an end user feature for folks who don’t have experience debugging kernel panics. If the QR code can generate a copy passable stack trace of the error the it could help make linux more mainstream and easier to debug for non technical folks.

eternityforest 2 years ago | |

Bad hardware exists though. And if hardware goes bad you're already in a stressful situation and probably don't want any extra work to fix it.