> Can't we somehow make this automatic and make sure it ends up in the
> message buffer? Shouldn't be too difficult. This would make it easy for
> the average person to report at least the minimal dump info and would
> provide a next step in obsoleting the paper and pencil near the console ;-)

(1) some machines clear the message buffer on boot, and can't be fixed
to avoid doing so.

(2) on many ports which don't fall prey to problem (1), the message
buffer is way too small.  E.g. I know a few Alphas on which it's
overrun (at least 1x over, if not 2x or more) by autoconfiguration
output.  I proposed a set of patches to help fix this a while ago.
They're currently languishing in a PR.


dump -> gdb -k is the way to go.  8-)


chris