From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Mon Aug 31 03:06:49 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03CDA9C6227 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (mailman.ysv.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::50:5]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC6F6B23 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) id DB9A69C6226; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:48 +0000 (UTC) Delivered-To: hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2AFA9C6225 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from albert.catwhisker.org (mx.catwhisker.org [198.144.209.73]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 96257B22 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from albert.catwhisker.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by albert.catwhisker.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id t7V36dtX008866 for ; Sun, 30 Aug 2015 20:06:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david@albert.catwhisker.org) Received: (from david@localhost) by albert.catwhisker.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id t7V36dHx008865 for hackers@freebsd.org; Sun, 30 Aug 2015 20:06:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2015 20:06:39 -0700 From: David Wolfskill To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Puzzle involving serial console and ...??!? Message-ID: <20150831030639.GH1153@albert.catwhisker.org> Reply-To: hackers@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="HuscSE0D68UGttcd" Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:06:49 -0000 --HuscSE0D68UGttcd Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I may be going mad -- that's likely the simplest explanation, and Occam's Razor would thus indicate that this hypothesis should be accorded a degree of plausibility, at least. As described in , I have my own quirky ways of upgrading FreeBSD systems, the basics of which remain fundamentally unchanged for the last dozen years (well, a few more than that, but...). In turn, much of that approach was borrowed from one of my pre-FreeBSD experiences in an IBM mainframe environment (as a "systems programmer"). What's causing me to question my tenuous grasp of reality is this: Referencing the above-cited Web page, my build machine ("freebeast") normally runs headless, and I use a cable to connect its serial port to the serial port of one of my other machines ("albert"). By doing so, I have a working serial console (once the FreeBSD loader gains control from the BIOS, at least)... half the time. I have determined that whether or not I have a functioning serial console for freebeast depends on whether I boot albert from slice 1 or slice 2: if from slice 1, it doesn't work; if from slice 2, it does. Even when the contents of the 2 slices are functionally equivalent (that is, the file systems of the 2 slices are as "the same" as a "dump 0Lf | restore" pipeline can make them, except for a deliberate difference in the contents of /etc/fstab (as the root and /usr file systems are on different slices in the two cases)). I use tip(1) on albert to access the serial port (as I have since 1998); I leave the speed at the default of 9600 because it has -- save for this case -- always worked for me in the past. Does anyone have any suggestions for figuring out what is really going on here? While I can't just reboot "albert," I have another (similar) machine ("pogo") that I use for testing stuff that I plan to do to albert, and I could easily connect teh serial cable to pogo instead of albert and tinker with that. Thanks. I'm on the list, so list replies need not Cc: me. Peace, david --=20 David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org Those who would murder in the name of God or prophet are blasphemous coward= s. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key. --HuscSE0D68UGttcd Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQJ8BAEBCgBmBQJV48S/XxSAAAAAAC4AKGlzc3Vlci1mcHJAbm90YXRpb25zLm9w ZW5wZ3AuZmlmdGhob3JzZW1hbi5uZXQ4RThEMDY4QTIxMjc1MDZFRDIzODYzRTc4 QTY3RjlDOERFRjQxOTNCAAoJEIpn+cje9Bk7ROMP/iX3H4eQcykJcotlnt3utqsf xZrb8PaduykO7cgFENTNhsE/JKYgUojScyJKpppzHYM+M+seg8c1b36FYIN9Kuwj HLaSjRYUu8LYn9ub03a4pRHOO5G7X0Dao6O/6BYNLu6jwpvN+ISAg8xpMfHoTzXI rAo/M4HppIlHooD3+d4QV5bFt6dVEEKjSY9cFXi8/pDtnWAl+WqbmAf7huPmGUNF l+e5EyxCYseguHUPp3r7W1GPiMNKL7CA3KBIUTmdvJgRwxL+w32ocRocVWFPjj+F VfuASPjCoytFW6vSsJVoZ3CihxsxWB0/TW3zlQNDf9ehfbPJ1JkyYsMqKIgVWs7e VARN8ThzwNjc+HeXqiCeHfnH8SxJZHGY7/uZQYcO867GtrIIj8VhvLBKlK3/TPXs g3q/4wREtsmUye/Dza4kGAJqdgkykfT5NY6Hejkzdp33GGdqM1+twZrTg5rAFlpE PkSS3hGFmKVsMj8wmT/JlR5bTwdegRRT9FQZ5pQALFPBwByuFN2u3UJnbDoAUVGd irZ2TwNDgHUJykygN2R1TZIVMcBJHUzQ0QNWj+5gCKEX2+LwHIAQbqMVvnqfpluF NMTWT5EF9wd4tjQm/0iMC39e8FXXKrN1feLl4aiwnSkkUbp/PHKT6caC/2KuPcTm aHJ32VVgYpRMH6Awbktp =SD1j -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --HuscSE0D68UGttcd--