Linux 6.12 To Optionally Display A QR Code During Kernel Panics

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 29 August 2024 at 11:00 AM EDT. 38 Comments
LINUX KERNEL
Submitted today via DRM-Misc-Next to DRM-Next for staging ahead of the Linux 6.12 merge window in mid-September is optional support for displaying a QR code within the DRM Panic handler infrastructure when a Linux kernel panic occurs.

As written about back in early July, there's been work for showing a QR code error when Linux DRM Panic "Screen of Death" errors occur. This can be much more convenient and user-friendly when a panic occurs. Right now kernel panic messages tend to get chopped off the screen's display when being output and a QR code is able to capture a lot of information that may otherwise be hard to capture from the simple text-based output.

QR panic example


This isn't the first time that QR codes for kernel errors have been thought of as it was discussed years ago and other operating systems have done so as well.

With today's drm-misc-next pull request that QR code support for DRM panic has been queued for introduction in Linux 6.12 when using the DRM Panic handler on supported drivers.

DRM QR options


This QR code support is written in the Rust programming language and thus the Rust kernel build must be enabled for the support. The support is guarded by the DRM_PANIC_SCREEN_QR_CODE Kconfig build switch. There is also support for specifying a QR code base URL and QR version for the amount of debugging data that can be archived.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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