Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 20:19:15 +0000 From: Adam Laurie <adam@algroup.co.uk> To: security@freebsd.org Subject: console disappears after reboot Message-ID: <387B9043.62415CF3@algroup.co.uk>
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Hi, I realise this is slightly off topic, but as the situation arises due to a security procedure, I hope someone else here as already seen similar problems... I am working at a facility that has a locked server room with an annexe just outside where you can access the servers without being in the cold/noise. For security reasons, the vga/keyboard switch that feeds the annexe is switched off when there's no-one there. This setup has worked fine for a number of years. However, we are now installing some new servers and we've found that if they get rebooted when the switch is off, the console gets changed to a serial device. This means we've lost the machine(s) until we log in remotely and reboot again. Not good. It seems that FreeBSD 3.1+ scans for a console, and if it can't find kb / vga it switches to serial. The old machines all work fine as they are 3.0 or less. I know I can set the console device in /boot/loader.conf, but this leads to other problems (possibly a bug here): on some machines we get a "/boot/loader not found - Disk error 0x1", and we suspect that this is to do with the boot partition not being constrained to the first 1024 cylinders. 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? cheers, Adam -- Adam Laurie Tel: +44 (181) 742 0755 A.L. Digital Ltd. Fax: +44 (181) 742 5995 Voysey House Barley Mow Passage http://www.aldigital.co.uk London W4 4GB mailto:adam@algroup.co.uk UNITED KINGDOM PGP key on keyservers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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