this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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I'm thinking back to those times fixing broken NT 3.5 machines. I can't think of many times a console was needed that didn't have alternate methods to accomplish the same thing. There's really only two times I can think I'd need what we use a console for today.
display drivers wrong/bad - VGA mode existed for this where you could get a very ugly 640x480 16 color display that worked on all VGA cards irrespective of driver. You could get into the OS (even authenticate!) and make any changes to the OS needed.
mass storage controller change/ driver fix - Running through the setup again from floppies (F8 to use new driver) and you'd be back into the OS.
What else did you need a console for?
I think mostly for correcting config files, and because I didn't like VGA mode, it was a waste of time to have to boot into.
To read logs and disable drivers that caused problems.