From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Mar  1 15:51:57 1999
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From: Vijay Bandi <bandi@cs.umn.edu>
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Subject: console terminal for freebsd machines?
To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 17:51:32 -0600 (CST)
Cc: bandi@mail.cs.umn.edu (Vijay Bandi)
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Hello,
	I appreciate any/all advice on this problem that I am
facing. I have a few freebsd boxes that run experimental software
that tends to make the OS lock up, and hoses it in a way that only
a reboot (or power cycle) from the console can bring it back to
life.

	For the sun hardware (running any OS), the solution is to
simply hook up the serial port to a console server, and reboot it from
there.

	Now it would be cool if such a solution exists for x86 hardware,
namely, a kind of boot monitor in non-volatile memory (EEPROM perhaps?)
that the OS can trip into, and which can communicate via the primary
(or a dedicated) serial port. Is this possible? (I have a EEPROM burner
and burning a PROM image is not a problem, if I can get hold off the
image).

	While that is the ideal solution, I am interested in what
others have done in a similar situation. I have thought about a remote
power strip and most likely will do this if there isnt another way.
Please email me or mail to the mailing-list. I'll summarize private
responses if there is interest.

Finally, I apologize if this is a FAQ type of question. I looked through 
various freebsd lists but could not find what I needed.

Thanks-in-advance,
-vijay 
[bandi@cs.umn.edu]


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