On 13/11/2025 16:31, Jonathan Wakely wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2025 at 14:35, Allison King via devel-announce
<[email protected]> wrote:
Wiki: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/UseKmsconVTConsole
Discussion Thread: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/172602
**This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.**
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process,
proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This
proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering
Steering Committee.
== Summary ==
This change is to replace the kernel console '''fbcon''' with the userspace
console '''kmscon''' in Fedora, to provide an enhanced and more secure console
for Fedora users.
The long term goal is also to deprecate fbcon/fbdev emulation in the kernel,
and this is the first step in this direction.
Generally I think this sounds like a good change...
Thanks>
== How To Test ==
Press Ctrl+alt+F3 to switch to the VT console.
Login and check if it's running kmscon with ''ps aux | grep tty3''
Maybe it's obvious if you are actually running kmscon, but I read this
and wondered how I would check. What is the expected output of this
command? How would it differ from what I see today on F42?
Presumably I would I see a kmscon process running on tty3? It might
improve the change proposal to say something like "You should see a
line in the output showing a kmscon process".
Yes, I can make that more clear, you should see a kmscon process running
on tty3
ps aux | grep tty3
root 52095 0.0 0.0 115180 16868 ? Ssl 17:37 0:00
/usr/libexec/kmscon/kmscon --vt=tty3 --seats=seat0 --no-switchvt --login
-- /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear -- -
==== Caveats ====
* Starting graphical application from the console (like "startx") won't work,
but you can work around it by using the script ''kmscon-launch-gui startx''
I don't remember the last time I needed to run startx but what is the
failure mode if you do run startx from kmscon? Is the
kmscon-launch-gui command discoverable for users who do want to use
startx or similar commands?
The error you get can be a bit cryptic, like "failed to set drm master".
But unfortunately there is no easy way for kmscon to catch this, and
suggest to the user to use kmscon-launch-gui script.
Best regards,
--
Jocelyn
--
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