From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Aug 9 17:08:15 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 773F5106564A for ; Sun, 9 Aug 2009 17:08:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from comp.john@googlemail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f206.google.com (mail-bw0-f206.google.com [209.85.218.206]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 04F038FC1F for ; Sun, 9 Aug 2009 17:08:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bwz2 with SMTP id 2so1630698bwz.43 for ; Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:08:13 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=kNHGI83tSQaSe3BaBTvWyevsihgwqRPVhNdXMgbhyE4=; b=SP8+h9jw3UGY6NxyrS9SopeRNFktRkItP02eAz1tlw4M2NwmchZEFAUExX1Rc+rbnO 6J89TtV8vyLTOWUE7pYKlsure1EzRBdyyz+0MQP6mox4tUqXc99KlOLt6NIJMDzKaJLZ b3R6KSsQ2KgfnK/boMmFgTmdewNHM1n7umQYE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=vpY3EtVeV43UCPQBmAzdoJFqxb0BQgyOcQttUfTViBcIR/pwLUZV/aye3z2+cVBuVO r0NucFVhs6HfmFqKb7sR75ssJX8re1j/Rn3O/49RBI1gszpuPAvc0juZn49+LpHreB1F Y1CjJtkTAZxHe32XKkbMA4TEV4ESBqO60fESw= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.223.127.4 with SMTP id e4mr653099fas.100.1249837693494; Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:08:13 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 18:08:13 +0100 Message-ID: From: "John ." To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: serial console on a machine without a serial port, but with a USB port 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: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:08:15 -0000 I need to have access to the console on my server, so that I can do stuff like grab the output of a crash or, if it halts whilst booting up, to take remedial action. I had planned on doing this from a much older machine whose sole function is to provide that capability. This older machine will be remotely accessible, and it sits next to the server machine, on its own real IP address, running ssh and maybe tip or whatever to read the console of the other machine. Sort of like a poor man's ILO. The problem is, the server is a much newer machine and it has no serial port - just USB. Is the only way round this to install a serial card? Would a serial-to-usb converter work? Will usb to usb work? Both machines have USB. on the server machine with a generic kernel (7.2-STABLE), I have this: dmesg | grep -E "^sio[0-9]" sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0 sio0: type 16550A sio0: [FILTER] sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0 sio0: type 16550A sio0: [FILTER] sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled and /dev has no sio* entries cheers -- John