Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 00:06:57 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org> To: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD, Intel Motherboards and Portmaster Serial Console - How? Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1041124000251.98085L-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20041119165657.C878@ganymede.hub.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> I just picked up a PM25 for our colo facility, so that I can do remote
> admin on the FreeBSD boxes ... our two Tyan servers are a piece of cake,
> as they have DB9 Serial, like I'd expect ... but the Intel motherboards
> have "External RJ45 serial, internal serial header" on all of there
> boards, from what I can tell ... but what I can't figure out is how to
> make use of them ...
Not sure where the previous post was CC'd to per se, but take a look here:
http://www.watson.org/~robert/freebsd/portmaster25/
A couple of other comments:
- Some Intel motherboards include BIOS revisions that have errors
regarding the configuration, or at least, are incomprehensible. We had
to futz for quite a long time to get it working for the netperf cluster.
Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the instructions -- I can only
advise trying counter-intuitive things. I think the problem was that
the BIOS was referring to 1/2 and meant A/B, or said A/B and meant 1/2.
- On some motherboards, the RTS/CTS seems to flip too frequently for the
Portmaster 25, which detects this as a wiring problem. I had to turn
off flow control on the port, set "hangup off". Otherwise, I saw the
serial console disconnect a few seconds whenever the test started moving
fast.
Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert@fledge.watson.org Principal Research Scientist, McAfee Research
>
> The servers are remote, so adding a 9pin serial port onto the 'internal
> header' is a bit difficult, so am wondering about using the 'external
> RJ45'. The PM25 cables end in an RJ45 jack, and we had to purchase
> adapters to go from RJ45->9pin ... can those RJ45 adapters be used to plug
> into the RJ45 serial directly?
>
> Also, from what I've been able to read so far, the RJ45 == Serial B, not
> Serial A ... so, I'd need to change how FreeBSD works as far as serial
> console is concerned, to look at Serial B, no?
>
> Help?
>
> Thanks ...
>
>
> ----
> Marc G. Fournier Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
> Email: scrappy@hub.org Yahoo!: yscrappy ICQ: 7615664
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
>
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.NEB.3.96L.1041124000251.98085L-100000>