From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 27 08:50:58 2004 Return-Path: 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 13A6816A4CE for ; Thu, 27 May 2004 08:50:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail3.panix.com (mail3.panix.com [166.84.1.74]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C62EF43D39 for ; Thu, 27 May 2004 08:50:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from fj@panix.com) Received: from panix5.panix.com (panix5.panix.com [166.84.1.5]) by mail3.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FD65981A0 for ; Thu, 27 May 2004 11:50:47 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from fj@localhost) by panix5.panix.com (8.11.6p2-a/8.8.8/PanixN1.1) id i4RFols21853 for questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 27 May 2004 11:50:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 11:50:47 -0400 From: Joe Altman To: questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040527155047.GA1606@panix.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Subject: Consoles: Toggling Internal vs. Serial during boot X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 15:50:58 -0000 The relevant system specs: FBSD 4.10, one serial port. I've read the docs: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialconsole-setup.html I am pretty sure I understand it all, but for one part. I'm not quite clear on how to grab the internal console once serial bits are set up. What I mean is that I'll compile the kernel with: device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x30 irq 4 and in /boot.config use: either -D or -Dh or one of the -P options. But in any of these, I'll end up with only serial access once in kernel. Section 17.6.6 Changing Console from the Boot Loader seems to be the relevant section. Is it really as simple as putting set console=vidconsole into /boot/loader.rc? I don't think it is; but if so, what do I type (and when) to grab backthe video console? Is this a job for loader.conf and flags, at some stage in the process of booting? In the situation available to me, I can have access to a KVM and a console server. So, I'm thinking ahead, and planning to have the video console available to me if I break something. I'm pretty sure I won't need it and can rely on the serial console output; but is there a way to toggle (during boot blocks or boot loader) away from serial to video output?