pbMay 26, 2024
When your computer crashes the blue screen still works. Why not make the whole computer out of blue screen?
Show threadmccMay 26, 2024

@pb @anildash I don't think you wanted a serious answer but I am going to give you one.

What you are describing is MacsBug! Pre-"X" Macintoshes had a thing you could install that was a sort of CPU debugger. You could get to it with a keystroke, or it would launch if a program specifically requested debugger entry… or if there was a crash! (I forget if it did this by default or if you had to configure it, but I believe it was an option.) When you entered it all normal CPU activity would halt.

Show threadSteve Syfuhs
@mcc @pb @anildash That is very nearly how the panic system works in Windows! The difference is that Windows has a mini-kernel of sorts fork off to spin up a memory dump and hook the debugger if one is present, while it's spinning down the borked kernel. The reason it doesn't do more is more philosophical than technical. Things are going down hard and odds are good the person at the keyboard won't know how to handle it.
May 26, 2024 at 9:38pmWeb
Show threadmccMay 26, 2024
@SteveSyfuhs @pb @anildash Would it be, in principle, possible (for example by plugging in the correct debugger) to configure a Windows machine just stay inside the mini-kernel and drop you into an in-kernel debugger interface?
Show threadSteve SyfuhsMay 26, 2024
@mcc @pb @anildash to some degree yeah. By this point you're living within the debug driver, so you'd have to bring your own shell, and the world is genuinely exploding all around you so there's some debate about how much you could trust any state outside the debug world.