showconsole

The showconsole package provides a suite of lightweight system console and boot logging utilities, originally developed over the years for SUSE and openSUSE Linux.

Included Tools

• blogd: Does boot logging on /dev/console.

• blogctl: Control the boot logging daemon blogd.

• blogger: Writes messages to a running blogd process.

• showconsole: Determines the real TTY of standard input.

• setconsole: Redirect system console output to a TTY.

• isserial: Determines if the underlying TTY of standard input is a serial line.

The blogd Boot Logging Daemon

Whereas blogd had been written for SysVinit based systems, this newer version also supports systemd based systems.

The blogd together with the new tool blogctl can replace the well-known plymouth but without any frame buffer and splash support. Therefore, blogd may be used on workstations as well as on so-called big irons.

Key Features & Purpose

• Boot Message Multiplexing: The blogd causes systemd to show its boot messages on the system console to collect them for repeating them on all devices used for the system console.

• Persistent Logging: It writes out a copy to boot.log and boot.old below /var/log/.

• Advanced Password Handling: Beside boot messages and logging them the blogd can handle password or passphrase requests send by password agents. For those requests the blogd do ask on all terminal lines used for the system console.

• Smart Virtual Terminal (VT) Switching: It features robust, dynamic Virtual Terminal management. If the system is running a graphical environment (X11/Wayland) that locks the active terminal, blogd smartly allocates a free text terminal, safely switches the display to prompt the user, and seamlessly switches back to the graphical session once complete.

• Context-Aware Prompts: If the user is already actively viewing a text console, the prompt is seamlessly integrated directly into the active text stream without unnecessary screen switching or visual disruption.