From owner-freebsd-current Fri Mar 10 17:31: 7 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from ren.sasknow.com (h139-142-245-96.ss.fiberone.net [139.142.245.96]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B18237C134; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 17:31:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ryan@sasknow.com) Received: from localhost (ryan@localhost) by ren.sasknow.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA09107; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 19:30:52 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from ryan@sasknow.com) Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 19:30:52 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson To: Mike Smith Cc: Kazutaka YOKOTA , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 4.0-20000307-CURRENT kern.flp keyboard probe questions In-Reply-To: <200003110106.RAA02153@mass.cdrom.com> Message-ID: Organization: SaskNow Technologies [www.sasknow.com] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Mike Smith wrote to Ryan Thompson: > > > >Isn't there a better way to identify a serial console? > > > > > > I don't understand. What do you expect the boot loader to do? > > > > I'm not sure, that's why I asked the list :-) Really, what I was asking > > is if there is a better way to detect a serial console.. Rather than the > > current logic of "If there is no keyboard, there must be a serial > > console". I can think of N reasons why a box would have no keyboard > > attached, besides having a serial console. > > Actually, there aren't very many. If you don't have a keyboard, you need > a console of some sort. If you don't have a console, you've made enough > modifications to be undaunted by removing two bytes from /boot.config. "Don't have a keyboard" != "No keyboard detected" != "Serial Console". I understand the reasoning and rationale behind the logic used, and I agree with it, to a point. Read below. I have indeed disabled the keyboard probe in /boot.config when doing many installs to avoid the problem that I mentioned... But I always yearned for something a little less awkward, when I can otherwise still use install disks from the distribution images. > > I know very little about serial consoles, but can they not be probed > > somehow to determine their existence? If that's not possible, at least, > > what I'm suggesting below still sounds reasonable. > > No, they can't be probed, and no, if you think about it for a minute, > what you're proposing is entirely nonsensical. Ok, so they can't be probed. However, I HAVE thought about it for a minute, and, to be honest, I still don't see why my proposal is entirely nonsensical. :-) Would you mind explaning your argument? For clarity, I'll explain mine again... Perhapas we're just not on the same wavelength: From boot(8): -P probe the keyboard. If no keyboard is found, the -D and -h options are automatically set. Instead of that behaviour, I am suggesting a more forgiving behaviour: 1. Probe for a keyboard. 2. Is there a keyboard? Yes - Boot from the local console No - Display "Keyboard not found. Using serial console in 10 seconds, press any key to abort" 3. Was a key pressed in 10 seconds? Yes - Boot from the local console No - Display "Booting from serial console" Boot from the serial console Nothing is lost, besides an extra 10 seconds at bootup, and a smidgen of the code segment. If no keyboard is detected, and there is indeed a serial console, it will still be used automatically. If, however, there was a temporary probing problem (i.e., the keyboard was not yet plugged in), the installer can smack a key and continue on. I'm open to the idea that I'm being nonsensical (I'll usually be the first one to admit it), but, in this case, I just don't see your reasoning, Mike. Please clarify. -- Ryan Thompson Systems Administrator, Accounts Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161 SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com #106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message