From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 7 11:51:20 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA38516A4CE for ; Thu, 7 Apr 2005 11:51:20 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mh1.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [207.200.51.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 621FE43D1D for ; Thu, 7 Apr 2005 11:51:20 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from [10.177.171.220] (neutrino.centtech.com [10.177.171.220]) by mh1.centtech.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j37BpJAH046014; Thu, 7 Apr 2005 06:51:19 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Message-ID: <42551E94.30800@centtech.com> Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 06:50:44 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20050325 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Marian Hettwer References: <787bbe1c0504070307670f5e5d@mail.gmail.com> <4255182E.1020002@centtech.com> <4142.212.12.51.89.1112874483.squirrel@212.12.51.89> In-Reply-To: <4142.212.12.51.89.1112874483.squirrel@212.12.51.89> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.82/813/Thu Apr 7 05:20:51 2005 on mh1.centtech.com X-Virus-Status: Clean cc: =?UTF-8?B?U8WCYXdlayDFu2Fr?= cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Serial console install X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 11:51:21 -0000 Marian Hettwer wrote: > On Do, 7.04.2005, 13:23, Eric Anderson sagte: > >>Sławek Żak wrote: >> >>>Hi, >>> >>>I'd like to ask what's the reason behind requiring a keyboard during >>>FreeBSD install. Headless configuration is the most common in >>>datacenters and toying with KVM and VGA cable is often a no-no >>>(distance in the issue my case). >>> >>>Therefore why don't we introduce a prompt in the CD loader saying: >>> >>>"Press any key to install from video console..." >>> >>>Now wait 30s. If no key is pressed boot with console=comconsole. >>> >>>It would make my life sooo much easier and won't confuse noobs too much. >> >>Maybe so, but then people who do have video consoles plugged in would have >>to hit a key to keep going. >> > > True. But people with a Monitor and a Keyboard connected could hit Enter. > People with a headless Server just don't have a possiblity to hit any key > to initalize the installation the way they want. > > Isn't it possible to send out the output of FreeBSD's bootloader to VGA > and serial console ? > This would be perfect. We could have a point in our bootmenu to hit a > specific key for serial console install, or for VGA based install. > But I believe for the time being it's not possible to have the same output > on console and vga. > > On the other hand, would it be possible to create a PXE Image with serial > console enabled ? > Usually if you have servers which are headless they are additionally > pretty far away... Network Boot is the way to go :) > > >>Why not just read this: >> >>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-advanced.html >> > > well, this is an option, but however, you have to change the floppies all > the time. Floppies suck ;) You must have missed the second link - it answers your questions completely. You can also build your own images with whatever setup you'd like, and/or have that image used via PXE install. Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology A lost ounce of gold may be found, a lost moment of time never. ------------------------------------------------------------------------