From owner-freebsd-questions Thu May 14 18:44:48 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA03236 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Thu, 14 May 1998 18:44:48 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA03221 for ; Thu, 14 May 1998 18:44:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.8/8.8.7) id LAA00432; Fri, 15 May 1998 11:14:39 +0930 (CST) (envelope-from grog) Message-ID: <19980515111439.D305@freebie.lemis.com> Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 11:14:39 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Jim Yuill , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: seeking advice re: configuring a serial console References: <3.0.1.32.19980512153053.0069d650@pop.mindspring.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.91.1i In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980512153053.0069d650@pop.mindspring.com>; from Jim Yuill on Tue, May 12, 1998 at 03:30:53PM -0400 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message