From owner-freebsd-hardware Tue Jan 27 14:21:23 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA28152 for hardware-outgoing; Tue, 27 Jan 1998 14:21:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from word.smith.net.au (ppp4.portal.net.au [202.12.71.104]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA28123 for ; Tue, 27 Jan 1998 14:20:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@word.smith.net.au) Received: from word (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by word.smith.net.au (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id IAA00424; Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:43:46 +1030 (CST) Message-Id: <199801272213.IAA00424@word.smith.net.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Kedar cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Serial I/O. In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:09:32 -0800." <2.2.32.19980127200932.0209f0b8@gw1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:43:46 +1030 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > I am trying to locate a motherboard that is capable of the > following. Would you know of any? Any pointers? There are some industrial systems that offer this sort of functionality. What other requirements do you have for the system? (CPU, peripherals, etc.?) > > 1) No video card required. Easy. > > 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. This is quite specialised; depending on what you want to do with the BIOS you might be able to live without this if you set it up right beforehand. > > 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). That's asking for a lot; it sounds like what you really want is a smart console emulator card. > > 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.) That much is trivial; put "-h" in /boot/config. It's marvellous, I tell you. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\