This was introduced in
commit 6db4063c5b
Author: Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com>
Date: Mon Jun 26 00:27:12 2006 -0700
[PATCH] VT binding: Add sysfs control to the VT layer
with the justification
"In addition, if any of the consoles are in KD_GRAPHICS mode, binding and
unbinding will not succeed. KD_GRAPHICS mode usually indicates that the
underlying console hardware is used for other purposes other than displaying
text (ie X). This feature should prevent binding/unbinding from interfering
with a graphics application using the VT."
I think we should lift this artificial restriction though:
- KD_GRAPHICS doesn't get cleaned up automatically, which means it's
easy to have terminals stuck in KD_GRAPHICS when hacking around on
X.
- X doesn't really care, especially with drm where kms already blocks
fbdev (and hence fbcon) when there's an active compositor.
- This is a root-only interface with a separate .config option and
it's possible to hang your machine already anyway if you
unload/reload drivers and don't know what you're doing.
With this patch i915.ko module reloading works again reliably,
something in the recent fedora upgrades broke things.
Cc: Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com>
Cc: Peter Hurley <peter@hurleysoftware.com>
Cc: Imre Deak <imre.deak@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@intel.com>
Acked-by: David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>