boot process gets weirdly interrupted when using scroll lock

[deeptech71 at gmail.com]

Doug Barton wrote:
> On 05/19/10 12:09, deeptech71 at gmail.com wrote:
>> [Topic moved away from freebsd-current as the problem doesn't seem to be
>> -CURRENT-specific, and I think there's a larger crowd here :).]
>>
>> This may give a hint. The following patch resolves the 60-second idling
>> issue.
>> --- bgfuck 2010-05-19 20:23:50.000000000 +0200
>> +++ bgfsck 2010-05-19 20:23:40.000000000 +0200
>> @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
>> check_startmsgs && echo "${bgfsck_msg}."
>> fi
>>
>> - (sleep ${background_fsck_delay}; nice -4 fsck -B -p) 2>&1 | \
>> + (sleep 1;
>
> You can accomplish the same thing by simply setting that variable to 1
> in /etc/rc.conf.
>
>> nice -4 fsck -B -p) 2>&1 | \
>> logger -p daemon.notice -t fsck &
>> }
>>
>> So sleep is foregrounded or something?
>
> I missed the original thread, sorry, but looking at the current state of
> the code it's unclear to me why the close-paren is located where it is.
Archived at 
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2010-April/016562.html, 
but let me rephrase it.
> Can you try the attached patch and let us know if it works for you?
Didn't work.
>
>
> Doug
>

So the problem is:

During the boot process, when the rc scripts are printing messages (for 
example "Creating and/or trimming log files"), if I turn on the scroll 
lock, then (1) the messages are not printed and are permanently lost, 
and (2) the system waits for backgrounded (shell script) sleep calls to 
end before proceeding.

Here's a test case. Insert the following text into /etc/rc.d/bgfsck:

	echo TURN ON THE SCROLL LOCK NOW
	sleep 4
	echo HI THERE
	sleep 30 &
	echo HI THERE

During boot, when you see the "TURN ON THE SCROLL LOCK NOW" message, 
turn on the scroll lock. Wait for 5 seconds, then turn off the scroll 
lock. Confirm that the script sleeps for another ~30 seconds, and that 
neither "HI THERE" message are ever printed.