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Date:      Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:11:05 +1030
From:      "Daniel O'Connor" <doconnor@gsoft.com.au>
To:        Jeremy Chadwick <jdc@koitsu.org>
Cc:        Konstantin Belousov <kostikbel@gmail.com>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Navdeep Parhar <nparhar@gmail.com>, John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: IPMI serial console
Message-ID:  <F9FA1319-8F31-44EE-8C7E-A6FEA02AB23F@gsoft.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <20130222042907.GA75261@icarus.home.lan>
References:  <E44ABF7A-3795-471B-B241-7103ECE2119E@gsoft.com.au> <51269ABD.2040308@gmail.com> <2AF6F8E4-A45E-4D4C-9232-FF09AD4A3641@gsoft.com.au> <5126A3A1.1030208@gmail.com> <64293C7A-038A-4EA1-B394-9E80CFCBC14F@gsoft.com.au> <20130221230001.GF2598@kib.kiev.ua> <20130221232929.GA91708@icarus.home.lan> <3FE71C9F-29B2-48F5-9A51-D312B1803E14@gsoft.com.au> <20130222013258.GA93350@icarus.home.lan> <9F6E4B36-0C89-4409-91FB-08CC90848D23@gsoft.com.au> <20130222042907.GA75261@icarus.home.lan>

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On 22/02/2013, at 14:59, Jeremy Chadwick <jdc@koitsu.org> wrote:
>> This breaks the boot for me, boot.config has to contain more than =
just
>> flags it seems. In any case I believe setting boot_multicons and
>> boot_serial is the same as -Dh. Not sure about the baud rate though.
>=20
> Then someone broke something (parser or something else).  This has
> always, *always* worked (just flags).  The last time I verified it was
> with the release of 9.0-RELEASE.  I do have a system I could test this
> on, but I'd need to find a null modem cable first.

Weird, this is 9.1 - I wouldn't expect any changes..

> I have seen some MFCs that touch those bits in the bootloader, but =
from
> my memory it didn't touch anything other than supporting /boot/config =
as
> an alternate location to the classic /boot.config file.  I would be =
very
> surprised if this broke it.
>=20
> I can assure you that those were the only flags that were needed, and =
in
> exactly that syntax.  Even the Handbook has this in it, as well as
> boot(8).
>=20
> I believe your explanation of boot_multicons and boot_serial are =
correct
> and do correlate with -D and -h.  I could look at the bootstrap code =
to
> verify.  The options are described in loader(8) but not =
loader.conf(5).
>=20
> The drawback to using the /boot/loader.conf variables is that you =
won't
> get boot2 output because loader is what reads /boot/loader.conf, not
> boot2.  Thus you lose the ability to deal with the system via serial =
at
> the boot2 stage.  For me, this has always been a deal-breaker.  This =
is
> why I always advocate /boot.config.  (Note to readers: if I'm wrong
> about this, please correct me, and point me to the relevant code)

Ah that is a fair point.

>> BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED=3D115200  BOOT_COMCONSOLE_PORT=3D0x3e8 and now =
the
>> loader talks to me without VGA to serial redirection.
>=20
> Huzzah!  Do you get output from the kernel now, or still just =
bootstraps
> and loader, then silence until getty runs?

Sadly no, I just the loader then getty.

>> I assumed that the separate NIC was to avoid this problem, however I
>> have since found that the default on the SM boards I looked at is to
>> use the dedicated port otherwise share(!). So the worst of both
>> worlds, hooray!
>=20
> Depends on the board and the IPMI integration.  Most of the newer =
boards
> (past 3-4 years) I've seen have a dedicated LAN port on their IPMI
> add-on board; e.g. a dual-NIC motherboard has 2 NICs, then there's a =
3rd
> NIC on the IPMI card/port.  I have seen the shared ones though, and
> that's where the ASF stuff comes into play (ugh ugh ugh).  I've always
> avoided all the boards that have "on-board" IPMI of any sort.

I have boards with 3 RJ45 ports, 1 IPMI & 2 normal (em devices). The =
IMPI configuration has an option to use the dedicated port only, try =
that first then on failure share em0, or share em0 only.

The default is try the dedicate port then if that fails share em0 :(

--
Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer
for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au
"The nice thing about standards is that there
are so many of them to choose from."
  -- Andrew Tanenbaum
GPG Fingerprint - 5596 B766 97C0 0E94 4347 295E E593 DC20 7B3F CE8C









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