From owner-freebsd-current Mon Mar 11 13:32:40 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id NAA20010 for current-outgoing; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:32:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from tcsi.tcs.com (tcsi.tcs.com [137.134.41.11]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id NAA20003 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:32:37 -0800 (PST) Received: from phact.tcs.com (phact.tcs.com [137.134.41.99]) by tcsi.tcs.com (8.7.4/8.6.10) with ESMTP id NAA10854; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:31:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from cozumel.tcs.com (cozumel.tcs.com [137.134.104.12]) by phact.tcs.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id NAA19725; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:31:23 -0800 From: Douglas Ambrisko Received: (ambrisko@localhost) by cozumel.tcs.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) id NAA02528; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:29:58 -0800 Message-Id: <199603112129.NAA02528@cozumel.tcs.com> Subject: Re: COMCONSOLE: a patch and a problem To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:29:57 -0800 (PST) Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: <199603110814.JAA05510@uriah.heep.sax.de> from "J Wunsch" at Mar 11, 96 09:14:19 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-current@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Given all the talk about serial consoles, I've been playing with them as well. This is what I've done. - Modified sysinstall to work with a serial console or graphics console. This means you can install a machine without a graphics card. (it is a little messy when loading packages, I should probably turn that off, but I did load a system via the serial port). - Hacked the biosboot code to echo and take input from both the graphics screen/keyboard and com1. This way I can control the boot by either the normal console or serial console. It would be nice if I could save the boot mode for the default of the next boot. I also filter out garbage from the serial port incase a mouse is connected to it and is talking back. One problem would be trying to screen out a modem on com1 talking back ... is this very common? Also with the method, I don't have to worry about keyboard probes but may have to for a serial port. I'm not sure if this is that good of an idea, but it works pretty well and it was kind of neat to try. - Run getty on /dev/console and not on /dev/ttyv0, so I get a console getty no matter which way I boot. The advantage of this stuff is to simplify remote (or lazy) debugging of stuff. It is nice to be able to steal the console and do everything via a serial port and then return it to normal operations. Doug A.