root@ihack.net said:
> There are BIOS calls to probe the shift state.  (What do you think
> LILO does??) 

Of course - It's an ugly special-case however which would need
some structural change in the code. Up to now, the higher level
code can assume that a character can be read if a key was pressed,
independantly of the console type.

jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU said:
> LILO users here set the
> timeout so short you press and hold the shift-key before you see the
> prompt, or its too late.

That's a pro for the "shift" stuff...

> And you do it without generating lots of
> input chars,m like spacebar would.

That not - our code cleans the input buffer before user
input is read.

[serial console]
> If you use the BIOS, is this a problem?

The terminal doesn't deliver any character if only the shift key
is pressed.

best regards
Matthias