This is the best summary I could come up with:
The DRM Panic handler in Linux 6.10 that is used for presenting a visual error message in case of kernel panics and similar when CONFIG_VT is disabled continues seeing new features.
With Linux 6.11, the DRM Panic display can now handle monochrome logos.
With the code in Linux 6.10 when DRM Panic is triggered, an ASCII art version of Linux’s mascot, Tux the penguin, is rendered as part of the display.
If ASCII art on error messages doesn’t satisfy your tastes in 2024+, the DRM Panic code will be able to support a monochrome graphical logo that leverages the Linux kernel’s boot-up logo support.
This monochrome logo support in the DRM Panic handler was sent out as part of this week’s drm-misc-next pull request ahead of the Linux 6.11 merge window in July.
This week’s drm-misc-next material also includes TTM memory management improvements, various fixes to the smaller Direct Rendering Manager drivers, and also the previously talked about monochrome TV support for the Raspberry Pi.
The original article contains 237 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 30%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Hes not fat hes a rotund penguin on his way to mate!
DRM = Direct Rendering Manager, in case anyone else was thinking Digital Rights Management…
Hell yeah now Linux and I both will panic in style
This is making me realize that I have never encountered this equivalent of a blue screen of death on Linux.
It’s very new. Previously the system would just drop to a console with a message saying “Kernel panic: not syncing: [reason]” and a whole bunch of debug info.
But still, on a well-maintained system, that pretty much never happens. Mainly because Linux is significantly more resilient to faults in device drivers than Windows.
Begs the question what’s the point in all of this? In 20 or so years of using Linux (usually maintaining multiple systems at once) I’ve had a kernel panic maybe about 4 times for different reasons, and on those occasions the console debug info was fine. I don’t really understand the excitement around making error messages look more like Windows. It can’t be around being more newbie friendly since if you’re having kernel panics you probably need to be an expert or have expert advice anyway.
