Linux gets its own blue screen of death

Linux gets its own version of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Voronix Reports The latest version of systemd for Linux comes with the systemd-bsod service, which is capable of generating a full-screen error message on Linux distributions.

Just like how the blue screen of death originated in Windows, the Linux version will be used as an emergency error logging tool. If the Linux system fails to boot, a full-screen message will be generated displaying a QR code to get more information about the cause of the boot issue. This was reportedly added as part of Awareness projecta group that provides internal training for people to work on open source tools.

The systemd-bsod feature is still experimental, and is still a Changelog on GitHub Note that it is still subject to change, but systemd is a core part of most Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Red Hat. So we’ll likely see this BSOD feature appear in many Linux distributions throughout 2024.

Rest assured that there are no major changes to the blue screen of death on the Windows side at the moment. Microsoft has tried a number of changes to its Blue Screen of Death over the years, including adding a sad face to the screen in Windows 8 in 2012 and QR codes in 2016. The Blue Screen of Death briefly changes to black in Windows 11 before Microsoft reverted this change. Shortly after the OS is released in 2021.