Jan Engelhardt wrote:
On Wednesday 2017-02-01 10:36, Johannes Meixner wrote:
I like continuously reported info messages[...] As long as such messages are continuously reported it is obvious "that thingy is still doing something". When it fails one can directly see its last messages regardless whether or not one understands the meaning. [...] I do not necessarily mean a full screen of such messages. Only one or a few status message lines (at the bottom) are perfectly sufficient as user information.
That sounds just exactly like what plymouth is doing. The progress bar is the message. It meets the criteria of "not occupying the entire screen". It meets the criteria that while "that thingy is still doing something", it will update. And when it fails or does nothing (hello overly long systemd timeouts), one can see its last (textual) message with ESC, whether one understands the meaning of the text or not.
If the system hangs during boot and does not react to ESC key anymore the last message on a text mode screen could be useful. Not always but sometimes. Ciao, Michael.