Systemd 230 Opens Up A New Graphics Vulnerability & FBDEV Still Should Die

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Systemd 230 Opens Up A New Graphics Vulnerability & FBDEV Still Should Die

A change made in the recent release of systemd 230 makes it easy for rogue user processes to be able to spy on your desktop, assuming a few conditions are met...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-230-FBDEV-Woe

[ArthurBorsboom]

My (travel) netbook uses the gma500 driver. Does this driver uses fbdev? Would killing the fbdev driver mean that this is the latest kernel for this machine?

[Gusar]

My (travel) netbook uses the gma500 driver. Does this driver uses fbdev? Would killing the fbdev driver mean that this is the latest kernel for this machine?

gma500 is a DRM/KMS driver. However, like other in-kernel KMS drivers, it probably provides fbdev compatibility. Does your console switch to a higher resolution when gma500 loads? If yes, that's the fbdev compatibility at play.

[nanonyme]

gma500 is a DRM/KMS driver. However, like other in-kernel KMS drivers, it probably provides fbdev compatibility. Does your console switch to a higher resolution when gma500 loads? If yes, that's the fbdev compatibility at play.

Certain distros actually force it to use fbdev due to issues with KMS. This smells like the drivers were or are buggy

[darkbasic]

Just kill fbdev please.

[schmidtbag]

Unless there's an alternative to fbdev I'm not aware of, I don't think it should ever be killed off. I personally find it very useful, and it can do a lot of interesting things. It allows you to get a working X session without proper GPU drivers (ideal for some ARM platforms). It allows you to graphically view websites, images, and PDFs through a tty (implying no graphical server). You can even do a VNC client through a tty. Are all of those features really all that practical? Maybe not, but it's this kind of stuff why I think Linux is so fascinating.

[unixfan2001]

Unless there's an alternative to fbdev I'm not aware of

That would be KMS.
Thankfully, that's the model embedded developers are now focusing on.

[ermo]

Speaking of the framebuffer and KMS:

Does anyone here know what happened to David Herrmann's plans to create a KMS console (KMSCON)?

EDIT: Oh, KMSCON's successor is in systemd?

• KMSCON (Maintainer, 2011 – 2014): KMSCON is a terminal/console emulator for Linux. It was created as replacement for the in-kernel terminal emulator and VT subsystem. It is based on the Linux DRM subsystem and uses Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) to display the console to the screen. Similar to Wayland it is an attempt to replace the old Linux infrastructure with a modern approach and producing better maintainable code while dropping the 20-year old mess that is VT+X11. In 2014, I stopped working on it. We implemented a replacement in systemd, based on the lessons learned on KMSCON.

[Ericg]

Speaking of the framebuffer and KMS:

Does anyone here know what happened to David Herrmann's plans to create a KMS console (KMSCON)?

EDIT: Oh, KMSCON's successor is in systemd?

systemd-consoled

EDIT: The lead developer dropped it: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/747

[ermo]

systemd-consoled

EDIT: The lead developer dropped it: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/747

Just a thought, but FBDEV likely exists because some people find its functionality--if not the specific implementation details--useful. Seems to me that in an ideal world, KMSCON would need to be revived in some shape or form before it would be possible to kill off FBDEV?

In addition, it would likely end up being an additional driver for the ARM-people to just create a DRM/KMS driver for their hardware already and everyone would be happy?