bug#20922: blinking in linux console

[Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com>]

summary: can emacs do ANYTHING to not blink in the linux console?

linux is at its worst when you have to debug things in the console.  you
usually do not have your shell tools or emacs config or filesystem
hierarchy.  dead and broken keys impair the emacs experience.  and yet
you have to (1) solve the original problem and (2) get your system running.

this is exactly the time when some of us do NOT need the cursor to
blink.  in my own case, for health reasons, i cannot tolerate a
blinking cursor.  this impedes fixing the computer significantly and
is a problem in its own right.  but i know that others find it highly
annoying even though they do not have health reasons.  so i won't call
it an accessibility problem even though it is.  (aside: for some
reason, sometimes the free software community tends to dismiss
accessbility needs, while taking annoyance preferences seriously.
thus i sometimes try to cover both bases when it is an accessbility
issue.)

now, inb4, there are a few websites that cover the linux console.  even
on emacs sites.  for example:

  1) you can emit ansi sequences to turn the cursor into a red block.
  this fails, because emacs resets everything and blinks the cursor
  again.  also, if you are in the console in the first place, you
  possibly don't have access to this.

  2) you can do some kind of nonsense with terminal definitions, which
  fails because i don't remember why.  also, if you are in the console
  in the first place, you possibly don't have access to this.

  3) you can echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fbcon/cursor_blink.  this
  fails, because i don't know, it just fails.  also, ....

obviously, linux needs to grow up and stop assuming nobody needs to not have
kewl blinky flashy things.  so this should be fixed in linux.

but can emacs fix this so that it is not a problem in emacs any more?
regardless of whether linux has decided to fix the problem?

for example, can it fix whatever resetting the terminal broke?  can it
set its own terminal definition?

i do not know whether this is possible in principle or not.

(inb4 nothing at the lisp level in emacs fixes this, of course.)


thanks.


In GNU Emacs 24.4.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.4.2)
 of 2015-01-11 on maritornes, modified by Debian