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To: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: machine reboot & kernel maxusers option 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 25 Nov 1995 19:14:40 CST."
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Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 11:10:04 -0500
From: Chris Shenton <cshenton@apollo.hq.nasa.gov>
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On Sat, 25 Nov 1995 19:14:40 -0600, peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) said:

J Wunsch  <j@uriah.heep.sax.de> wrote:
>> I really don't like the two dozen ``foo: not found at address ...''
>> messages for the installation kernel.

Peter> I like it. A lot. I hate systems that don't tell me what the
Peter> hell they're doing on boot-up (see also, Windows NT, SCO,
Peter> Unixware). How about at least an "options BOOTVERBOSE" for us
Peter> belt-and-suspenders types?

Agreed. I used to hate computers with lots of blinking lights. Until I
had to work with one whose only diagnostics were the lights -- until
the console came up, which many times it didn't :-(

A BOOTVERBOSE would be fine by me, as long as it's not the
default. For someone bringing up a machine the first time (or a new
kernel) it is crucial to see this. How 'bout a kernel var or some such
like BOOTQUIET?

Or put the boot messages on an aux console (ALT-F4?) and point at 'em
from the now-quiet main boot console window?

In either case, I'd really like to have the addition of backward
scrolling added to those boot messages: many time's I've been
rebuilding the kernel, or reconfiging jumpers on cards and they are
the first things probed and fly off the screen. Doh! Can you use the
scroll-lock page-up/down feature here?

Thanks.

PS: think about new users trying to bring up FreeBSD on unknown
    HW. How many are going to know to check `dmesg' and /var/log/messages?