• Antonino A. Daplas's avatar
    [PATCH] Detaching fbcon: add capability to attach/detach fbcon · 5428b044
    Antonino A. Daplas authored
    Add the ability to detach and attach the framebuffer console to and from the
    vt layer.  This is done by echo'ing any value to sysfs attributes located in
    class/graphics/fbcon.  The two attributes are:
    
          attach - bind fbcon to the vt layer
          detach - unbind fbcon from the vt layer
    
    Once fbcon is detached from the vt layer, fbcon can be unloaded if compiled as
    a module.  This feature is quite useful for developers who work on the
    framebuffer or console subsystem.  This is also useful for users who want to
    go to text mode or graphics mode without having to reboot.
    
    Directly unloading the fbcon module is not possible because the vt layer
    increments the module reference count for all bound consoles.  Detaching fbcon
    decrements the module reference count to zero so unloading becomes possible.
    
    Detaching fbcon may interfere with X and/or DRM.
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAntonino Daplas <adaplas@pol.net>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAndrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarLinus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
    5428b044
fbcon.c 79.1 KB