From owner-freebsd-questions Wed May 20 16:46:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA26214 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Wed, 20 May 1998 16:46:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from risca.com (sky.risca.com [204.92.74.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA25829 for ; Wed, 20 May 1998 16:44:26 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from fam@risca.com) Received: by sky.risca.com id <26881>; Wed, 20 May 1998 19:43:35 -0400 Message-Id: <98May20.194335edt.26881@sky.risca.com> From: fam@risca.com (Frank Mandarino) Subject: Re: seeking advice re: configuring a serial console In-Reply-To: <19980515111439.D305@freebie.lemis.com> from Greg Lehey at "May 14, 98 09:44:39 pm" To: grog@lemis.com (Greg Lehey) Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 19:43:39 -0400 Cc: jjyuill@mindspring.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Greg Lehey writes: > On Tue, 12 May 1998 at 15:30:53 -0400, Jim Yuill wrote: > > Can anyone please provide advice about configuring a serial console? I > > can't figure out how to get the "boot:" prompt, and the preceding boot > > messages, to show up on the serial console. > > > > When the system first boots, the initial messages- including the "boot:" > > prompt- show up on ttyv0 (the monitor connected to the video card). After > > the "boot:" prompt about three lines of messages appear on ttyv0. After > > that all the boot console-messages go to the serial terminal ttyd0. > > > > I'd like all the console messages- especially the "boot:" prompt- to go to > > the serial terminal. > > > > Any advice would be most appreciated. I've probably just neglected a step > > in the configuration process. Listed below is the steps I've taken so far. > > I'm pretty sure you can't. Certainly the serial console is a FreeBSD > function, not a BIOS function, so it can't work until FreeBSD is in > control of the machine. All messages before the "boot:" prompt are > created by the BIOS. > > The boot: message itself is an uncertain case. It comes from the > bootstrap, technically not part of FreeBSD, though it's supplied with > it. The trouble is, when it starts it can't know where to write to > until it reads in the commands, so I don't think it's possible to get > it to write to the serial console. I suppose it would be possible to > rewrite the bootstrap to always use the serial console, but I don't > know of anybody who has done it. I got the boot: prompt to appear on the serial console of my 2.2.6-RELEASE system by: 1) building my kernel with "options COMCONSOLE" to force the serial console, and 2) creating a /boot.config file containing the option "-P", to use the serial console if no keyboard is found, 3) unplugging my keyboard. The file /usr/src/sys/i386/boot/biosboot/README.serial contains further information. Regards, ../fam -- Frank A. Mandarino fam@risca.com 60 F1 97 67 FB B9 9D 75 F8 C4 FA 9E AF 2F 04 FE To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message