From nobody Fri May 22 17:04:34 2026 X-Original-To: questions@mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4gMWq35p8xz6fDV8 for ; Fri, 22 May 2026 17:04:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sr@genyosha.net) Received: from ns1.genyosha.net (ns1.genyosha.net [50.39.243.221]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "cerebus.home.genyosha.net", Issuer "cerebus.home.genyosha.net" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4gMWq31mVtz3ynG for ; Fri, 22 May 2026 17:04:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sr@genyosha.net) Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; none Received: from dragon.home.genyosha.net (ops0.genyosha.net [50.39.243.219]) by ns1.genyosha.net (8.18.1/8.18.1) with ESMTPS id 64MH4eNv014177 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=FAIL); Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sr@genyosha.net) Received: from dragon.home.genyosha.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dragon.home.genyosha.net (8.18.1/8.18.1) with ESMTPS id 64MH4YiM021969 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sr@dragon.home.genyosha.net) Received: (from sr@localhost) by dragon.home.genyosha.net (8.18.1/8.18.1/Submit) id 64MH4YHj021964; Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sr) Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:34 -0700 From: Steve Rikli To: Polarian Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Terminal server with consumer hardware Message-ID: References: <20260521233422.001d364f@Hydrogen> <20260522154731.4cad8798@Hydrogen> List-Id: User questions List-Archive: https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-questions List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org List-Id: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: List-Owner: Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20260522154731.4cad8798@Hydrogen> X-Greylist: inspected by milter-greylist-4.6.4 (ns1.genyosha.net [50.39.243.221]); Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:40 -0700 (PDT) for IP:'50.39.243.219' DOMAIN:'ops0.genyosha.net' HELO:'dragon.home.genyosha.net' FROM:'sr@genyosha.net' RCPT:'' X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.4 (ns1.genyosha.net [50.39.243.221]); Fri, 22 May 2026 10:04:40 -0700 (PDT) X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-4.00 / 15.00]; REPLY(-4.00)[]; ASN(0.00)[asn:20055, ipnet:50.39.128.0/17, country:US] X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4gMWq31mVtz3ynG X-Spamd-Bar: ---- X-Rspamd-Pre-Result: action=no action; module=replies; Message is reply to one we originated On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 03:47:31PM +0100, Polarian wrote: > ... > However I want to get serial working, full stop :) > > I don't want to give up on it, so does anyone have an idea how to get > this working? It's been quite a while since I looked at this, but AFAIK FreeBSD can't make use of USB serial devices for the system console. I.e. there must be an actual serial port, recognized by the bios and presented to the OS. Something like this, if found: $ dmesg | grep ^uart[0-9]: uart0: <16550 or compatible> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0 uart0: console (115200,n,8,1) The most I was able to work out with a USB serial device (e.g. on an old Intel NUC without a native serial port) was starting a login: getty on ttyU*, but that's only a terminal, not a system console. Similar situation with GRUB on Linux as well, btw. IIRC I was able to send some boot output to ttyU* there, but it wasn't usable as an interactive console during GRUB. IMO it'd be great if there were more support for USB serial devices as system console, since modern boards often don't have a serial port these days. I expect it's a tricky problem, doing console input-output to removable devices early in loader stages. Cheers, sr.