From nobody Sat May 23 00:13:36 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 4gMjL11B20z6dsSM for ; Sat, 23 May 2026 00:13:45 +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 4gMjL05HhKz41jg for ; Sat, 23 May 2026 00:13:44 +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 64N0Dgmi016386 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=FAIL); Fri, 22 May 2026 17:13:42 -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 64N0DaL3003449 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Fri, 22 May 2026 17:13:37 -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 64N0Da8o003448; Fri, 22 May 2026 17:13:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sr) Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 17:13:36 -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> <20260522231322.3a0dbd36@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: <20260522231322.3a0dbd36@Hydrogen> X-Greylist: inspected by milter-greylist-4.6.4 (ns1.genyosha.net [50.39.243.221]); Fri, 22 May 2026 17:13:42 -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 17:13:42 -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: 4gMjL05HhKz41jg 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 11:13:22PM +0100, Polarian wrote: > > > 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. > > The man pages cause some confusion here then, as freebsd.efi(8) > explicitly state that if you do not have support for it within your > uefi bios, maybe this is just me getting confused. I assume you mean loader.efi(8). While it doesn't specifically say "COM ports only", IMO it essentially implies that in this table: Windows Name I/O Port Address Typical FreeBSD device COM1 0x3f8 /dev/uart0 COM2 0x2f8 /dev/uart1 COM3 0x3e8 /dev/uart2 COM4 0x2e8 /dev/uart3 I dunno if that's the final word though, and it's quite possible things have changed since I last looked. There might be some hope from settings like comconsole_pcidev as described in loader_simp(8) but I haven't tried anything with it. > > 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) > > Ah so it must be presented by acpi, in which case this requires > firmware support within the motherboard full stop. With modern hardware it's typically acpi, yes. But I don't think it necessarily must be; e.g. in older releases and hardware, there were other default settings in /boot/device.hints for the uarts, something like: hint.uart.0.at="isa" I don't recall when the default changed to "acpi", I think it's been a while. device.hints(5) talks about format and syntax. Afaik for console purposes the serial device must have a uart(4), regardless of origin. > The man page still doesn't make sense on this though. I wonder who > would be a good person to ask about it, because if it isn't possible > then surely the man page needs improvements for being misleading or not > clear enough for idiots like me :p I'm no expert at all, a while ago I simply spent a lot time websearching, reading man pages, and experimenting with an old NUC. Ultimately I "solved" the situation here by primarily using systems with a native (built-in) serial port. :-)