From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 1 03:01:27 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C55116A415 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 03:01:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrew@areilly.bpa.nu) Received: from omta04sl.mx.bigpond.com (omta04sl.mx.bigpond.com [144.140.93.156]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B26CC43D4C for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 03:01:25 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from andrew@areilly.bpa.nu) Received: from areilly.bpa.nu ([141.168.2.3]) by omta04sl.mx.bigpond.com with ESMTP id <20061101030124.HYXA11279.omta04sl.mx.bigpond.com@areilly.bpa.nu> for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 03:01:24 +0000 Received: (qmail 30710 invoked by uid 501); 1 Nov 2006 02:59:04 -0000 Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 13:59:04 +1100 From: Andrew Reilly To: "Brian A. Seklecki" Message-ID: <20061101025904.GA30503@duncan.reilly.home> References: <20061031175606.P63561@arbitor.digitalfreaks.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20061031175606.P63561@arbitor.digitalfreaks.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, netbsd-users@netbsd.org Subject: Re: Hardware Console Redirection X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 03:01:27 -0000 On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 06:18:22PM -0500, Brian A. Seklecki wrote: > I have noticed that the "Phoenix BIOS" console redirection feature on both > discontinues to operate once the kernel has booted (however, the 1st/2nd > stage boot loaders work fine). Why is that a problem? The BIOS doesn't use the console once the kernel has booted. > The advantage of native, hardware level BIOS -> VGA emulated console > redirection is that, much like Sun/MacPPC or any OPF/PROM aware platform > (Soekris), the OS/Bootblocks need not be aware of the serial console > semantics; -- only of a benign VGA console. What serial console semantics do the bootblocks get wrong? > Is there some routine in the *BSD kernel console code that performs an > operation, perhaps a reset, on the serial ports, that wouldn't happen in > DOS? What sort of reset do you need? I don't really understand the question, I'm afraid. Do you mean a hardware reset of the serial port, or using the serial port to have the effect of Ctl-Alt-Delete (NMI) from a PC keyboard? > In the case of the Axiom device, the console is redirected to the BIOS > level "com0" 0x3f8. In the case of the PowerEdge, the redirection is to a > "virtual com1" which is attached to the DRAC5 LOM card. > > I tried the FreeBSD loader(8) hint.sio.1.flags="0x40" to attempt to have > the kernel ignore the device without success. You can build a kernel that explicitly doesn't have a driver that will look at a particular serial port, I think (by making it explicit which ports it *does* look at), but I don't understand how that would help: you'd have a serial port that would be used by the BIOS, but would do nothing once the main OS was booted. Cheers, -- Andrew