From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 15 09:05:33 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B5A06106564A for ; Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:05:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from avg@freebsd.org) Received: from citadel.icyb.net.ua (citadel.icyb.net.ua [212.40.38.140]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF3DB8FC19 for ; Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:05:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: from porto.topspin.kiev.ua (porto-e.starpoint.kiev.ua [212.40.38.100]) by citadel.icyb.net.ua (8.8.8p3/ICyb-2.3exp) with ESMTP id KAA08986; Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:52:10 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from avg@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost.topspin.kiev.ua ([127.0.0.1]) by porto.topspin.kiev.ua with esmtp (Exim 4.34 (FreeBSD)) id 1PHunK-0005Iu-E6; Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:52:10 +0200 Message-ID: <4CE0F4BA.5050205@freebsd.org> Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:52:10 +0200 From: Andriy Gapon User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101029 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Reilly References: <20101115045549.GB96011@johnny.reilly.home> In-Reply-To: <20101115045549.GB96011@johnny.reilly.home> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.1.2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Console options for legacy-free mini-itx server? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:05:33 -0000 on 15/11/2010 06:55 Andrew Reilly said the following: > Hi there, > > I've replaced my old desktop with a laptop and a server, which > is mostly working great. Naturally, the server is running > FreeBSD-stable. It's built on an intel i3 MiniITX motherboard > that has lots of SATA sockets, a respectable number of USB > sockets, gigabit ethernet, eSATA, DVI, ... but no serial ports > or PS/2 keyboard or mouse ports. Most of the time this is fine, > but I've found that sometimes it is very nice to be able to > debug something at a console. Particularly if something goes > wrong when doing an upgrade of some sort. I've discovered that > I can use the old VGA screen and USB keyboard for a console if I > have them plugged in at boot time, but if something goes wrong > after boot, plugging a keyboard in doesn't seem to help. > > If I find a USB-to-RS232 dongle, will the console mechanism be > able to find it? I worry that only legacy-16550-ish serial > ports need apply. > > Any other possibilities or common practices? Is there a firewire port? > Oh: the other thing about this system: I can't warm-start > it, have to power down and then manually hit the power-on > button. Attempting to reboot leaves the console sitting at > something like "Stopping other CPUs" forever. I assume that > this is a BIOS config problem, but haven't found the right > control knob yet. I've tried turning hyperthreading on and off: > no difference. Reading the kernel code around that message > suggests that rebooting involves getting the keyboard controller > to send an NMI, and I wonder if the legacy-free no-keyboard > state of my system is having an effect on that, too? -- Andriy Gapon