early printk/panic (was: Re: [PATCH] Minor numa memory code cleanup)

[Mike Kravetz]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 08:14:57PM -0800, Mike Kravetz wrote:
> OK - I'll add something like a panic if we ever hit this situation.

On my system panic message strings are not displayed at this stage of
the boot process (do_init_bootmem called from setup_arch).  A printk
right before the panic does not show up either.  Guess that makes sense
as panic calls printk.  However a printk earlier in the boot process
(during htab_init_page_sizes) is displayed.  

Is there a key to understanding how to get messages to the console
during the boot process?  Is this dependent on the type of console
used?  Is there a way to ensure that a message gets to any console
on any system?

Thanks,
-- 
Mike