Linux joins Heathrow's grounded fleet of information screens
Anything Windows can bork, the penguin can bork sideways
Heathrow Airport's information screens, which have been grounded, now feature a Linux boot log as a replacement for its Windows counterpart. UK travelers faced more than just fog during their travels this week, as the Linux display demonstrated that if Windows could crash, it could do so with greater effect. Andy Hinks spotted the malfunctioning information display in Terminal 2, where it displayed a sideways Linux boot log, useful only for mounting a filesystem.
The boot messages mentioned systemd, an Intel PRO/1000 network adapter, and an EXT4 filesystem on a logical volume named LV_ROOT. It remains unclear whether the issue lies with the filesystem or something else that went wrong. Heathrow has been using a mixture of technologies, including recent Raspberry Pi-based signage, which the senior product owner described as a "reliable, secure solution that has a significantly lower hardware cost and are 30-40% more energy efficient than our previous hardware."
The airport has spent years working on its new screens, re-engineering its content distribution system to be flexible and device-agnostic. Windows and Linux coexist at the airport, with each functioning smoothly in their respective spaces.
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Also reported by 1 other outlet
- Linux joins Heathrow's grounded fleet of information screens theregister.com
