From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 5 17:00:58 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 281E9106564A for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:00:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mcdouga9@egr.msu.edu) Received: from mail.egr.msu.edu (hill.egr.msu.edu [35.9.37.162]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F04FF8FC1B for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:00:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hill (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.egr.msu.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 41C185DF03 for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 12:00:57 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at egr.msu.edu Received: from mail.egr.msu.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by hill (hill.egr.msu.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id X-mHmxCs1-pI for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 12:00:57 -0500 (EST) Received: from [35.9.44.65] (daemon.egr.msu.edu [35.9.44.65]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: mcdouga9) by mail.egr.msu.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1845D5DEFD for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 12:00:57 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <4EDCF8C9.3030805@egr.msu.edu> Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:57 -0500 From: Adam McDougall User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111109 Thunderbird/8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org References: <4ECD4584.6040905@egr.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Trouble getting serial support for "Live CD" in 9 installer X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:00:58 -0000 On 11/23/11 15:03, Garrett Cooper wrote: > On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 11:12 AM, Adam McDougall wrote: >> I often use the serial console on my servers through ILOM remote console >> access to install FreeBSD because it lets me cut and paste commands into a >> live shell from install media. Back with FreeBSD 8.x and previous, the >> console worked as a dual console between the redirected VGA/keyboard console >> and serial, all I had to do was drop to the loader prompt at the boot loader >> menu to enter: >> >> set console=comconsole >> set boot_serial=yes >> boot >> >> From then on, the VGA console was ignored until I rebooted. But in 9.x >> (currently trying 9.0-RC2 from the usb image), I have to interrupt an >> earlier loader to use -h or -D to enable serial(dual) console support at >> all. I then enter the two variables above as I usually do, then specify my >> terminal type (xterm), then choose "Live CD" which prints: >> Updating motd: /etc/motd is not writable, update failed. >> Configuring syscons: blanktime. >> Starting cron. >> Starting background file system checks in 60 seconds. >> >> Wed Nov 23 19:03:02 UTC 2011 >> >> but then it prints the FreeBSD banner and spawns the login: prompt on the >> VGA console instead. >> >> Is there something else I can set during the boot process to make this work? >> I could try modifying the configuration on the usb image to suit my site >> but this is more modification than I required in the past and surprisingly >> different. Please let me know if I can provide more information or help in >> some way. Thanks. >> >> If I don't hear back in a few days or so, I'll make a PR. > > You'll need to change your device.hints and /etc/ttys. > -Garrett > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" Thanks. This lead me to an even easier solution with no editing that should work with booting from CD and with previous versions: 1. Boot completely normally 2. Use the installer to drop to Live CD shell 3. execute: /usr/libexec/getty std.9600 ttyu0 This spawns a login prompt on the serial port ttyu0 which is essentially all I need. I didn't seem to need to alter the device hints at all for my situation, and on a USB key I can mount -u -o rw / to edit one or more of /etc/ttys, /boot/loader.conf, /boot.config if I want to make it permanent for next time.