user space prints/console output

[stealth53]

Hi All,

I've an embedded board running linux 2.6.36 with a debugger connected to it. There is no serial port or any kind of console attached to it. I'm able to pull the __log_buf (printk buffer) and see all the kernel prints using debugger.

-------
-------
<6>[ 0.002779] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
<6>[ 0.010145] brd: module loaded
<6>[ 0.010431] loop: module loaded
<5>[ 0.010571] RAMDISK: gzip image found at block 0
<6>[ 0.031735] VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly on device 1:0.
<6>[ 0.031803] Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed


after this nothing prints:

Is there any way that we can pull all the user space prints into a memory or something similar to this? or something like a virtual terminal?

PS: No network card either, to put a telnetserver and get a terminal remotely.

Regards,
Sumesh.

[Rubberman]

At this point, the operating system is directing output to the "console", which you don't have. How are you connecting the debugging system to the board? What kind/model of board do you have? What are you trying to use it for?

[stealth53]

thanks rubberman for the reply,

the debugger is RISCWatch and it is connected to powerpc 440 core thru jtag. the hardware is not in my geo and I use a vnc session to debug stuffs. The functionality is to periodically update a large number of memory mapped FPGA registers. Is there something similar to memconsole or something where I can redirect console o/p to a memory..?

stealth

[Rubberman]

thanks rubberman for the reply,

the debugger is RISCWatch and it is connected to powerpc 440 core thru jtag. the hardware is not in my geo and I use a vnc session to debug stuffs. The functionality is to periodically update a large number of memory mapped FPGA registers. Is there something similar to memconsole or something where I can redirect console o/p to a memory..?

stealth

How much RAM does this board have, and what Linux distribution are you running (kernel version most important)?

[stealth53]

I dont use any distros, I created my own combination of Linux kernel 3.3.0 -rc2(~1.5MB footprint) + busybox based rootfs(16MB). I've 256Mb of ram which is mapped at 0x5000_0000 -0x6000_0000, and I'm using a relocatable kernel.

[Rubberman]

Ok. Do you have framebuffer support built into the kernel? If so, then you should be able to use that as an output "device".

[stealth53]

thanks rubberman for the reply,

I can enable framebuffer support in kernel. Can you give me some design pointers how to do this stuff..? :P