Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 03:58:10 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no> Cc: cjclark@home.com, adam@algroup.co.uk (Adam Laurie), stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: console disappears after reboot Message-ID: <200001131158.DAA01817@mass.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "13 Jan 2000 11:45:15 %2B0100." <xzpr9fmp7wk.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
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> [moved to -stable from -security]
>
> "Crist J. Clark" <cjc@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com> writes:
> > Adam Laurie wrote,
> > > Crist J. Clark wrote:
> > > > > Anyway, to cut a long story short, I would prefer to simply do something
> > > > > in /etc/rc.local to force the console back to local kb/vga, or disable
> > > > > the serial console in the kernel itself... so my question is: what? Is
> > > > > there such a command/setting?
> > > > If a console has "died," you should [HUP init]
> > > Unfortunately not. I assume it only tries to refresh the serial console.
> > I don't think so. Is the getty(8) for the device (I assume ttyv0) still
> > in the ps(1) output? If it is, perhaps kill it. Either kill it dead
> > and SIGHUP init(8) to start the new one, or maybe some signal (a HUP?)
> > refreshes a getty.
>
> You're totally off the track. His problem is that the kernel (or the
> boot loader) decides that there is no built-in console and uses a
> serial console instead. This has nothing to do with init(8). I guess
> the right person to answer this kind of question would be Mike Smith
> or Daniel Sobral.
I don't have any context for this, so it's a bit hard to be sure.
The decision as to which console to use is normally made by boot2; it will
use the video and keyboard BIOS unless:
a) the -h flag is supplied in /boot.config
b) the -P flag is supplied in /boot.config AND the BIOS has not set the
'extended keyboard present' flag.
This decision can be overridden with a setting in /boot/loader.conf which
can cause the loader to switch to another console, and it can be
overridden again by flags set on an sio device.
So in summary; there's nothing that will "decide there is no built-in
console" unless you explicitly tell it to go look for itself. Anything
that's causing the system to talk to a serial console is at the admin's
request. At this point in time, there is no way to force a change of
console once the system is up and running.
--
\\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith
\\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org
\\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com
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