From owner-freebsd-hardware  Tue Jan 27 14:00:27 1998
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Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 13:43:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom <tom@sdf.com>
To: Kedar <kedar@asacomputers.com>
cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Serial I/O.
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On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Kedar wrote:

>         Hello,
>  
>         I am trying to locate a motherboard that is capable of the
>         following.  Would you know of any?  Any pointers?
>         
>         Know of any workarounds, please?
> 
> > ****************************************************************
> > 1) No video card  required.

  Many do this.  They produce an error or beep, but you can continue
booting.

> > 2) The BIOS wakes up on the serial port and uses it for all
> > communications. 
> >
> > 3) The BIOS serial communications should require no fancy communications
> > protocols, ie. we should be able to use a dumb terminal. 
> >
> > 
> > 4) All (or at least the basic) BIOS setup functions should be available.

  I'm not aware of any motherboard that can do #2, #3, and #4.


> > 5) Sending a BREAK (or perhaps a special character/escape sequence) should
> > provide the same function as Ctrl-Alt-Del normally does (before, during,
> > and after boot, if possible). 
> > 
> > 6) Access to the Unix boot loader through the serial port should also be
> > available after the BIOS loads it.  This is needed to provide options to
> > the kernel (eg. single user mode, device configuration mode, etc.)

  FreeBSD COMCONSOLE can do #5 and #6.

> > ******************************************************************
>  
> TIA,
> Kedar.
> 
> Season's Greetings,
> Kedar Rajadnya

Tom