QR Codes Coming to Linux Kernel Panics with 6.12 Release
In July, a Red Hat engineer developed an option for the Linux Kernel to display a QR code after a crash, inspired by the feature in systemd 255+ that shows full-screen error messages. This is somewhat akin to Microsoft’s approach of displaying a QR code on the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
However, there is a fundamental difference between the QR codes displayed by Linux and Windows during a crash. The QR code on the Windows BSOD is a static link to Microsoft’s help documentation. In contrast, the QR code displayed after a Linux Kernel crash contains the crash log itself. This ensures that the crash log is not truncated, allowing users to photograph the QR code and later decode it for in-depth analysis of the crash.
After two months of discussion, the Red Hat engineer’s code has been submitted through DRM-Misc-Next to DRM-Next to make it into the Linux Kernel 6.12 merge window. If everything proceeds as expected, Linux Kernel 6.12 will be the first version to support the display of a QR code following a crash.
It is important to note that this QR code display feature is written in Rust by the Red Hat engineer, so it requires the Rust Kernel to be enabled. During the build, the feature can be configured using the DRM_PANIC_SCREEN_QR_CODE Kconfig option.
