From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 23 19:28:51 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7FFA0106564A for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:28:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mcdouga9@egr.msu.edu) Received: from mail.egr.msu.edu (hill.egr.msu.edu [35.9.37.162]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 569848FC1C for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:28:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hill (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.egr.msu.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC4AB54E31 for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:12:04 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at egr.msu.edu Received: from mail.egr.msu.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by hill (hill.egr.msu.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id uCGJxlgYrgC9 for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:12:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from [35.9.44.65] (daemon.egr.msu.edu [35.9.44.65]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: mcdouga9) by mail.egr.msu.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id A6FCE54E2A for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:12:04 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <4ECD4584.6040905@egr.msu.edu> Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:12:04 -0500 From: Adam McDougall User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111109 Thunderbird/8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Trouble getting serial support for "Live CD" in 9 installer X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:28:51 -0000 I often use the serial console on my servers through ILOM remote console access to install FreeBSD because it lets me cut and paste commands into a live shell from install media. Back with FreeBSD 8.x and previous, the console worked as a dual console between the redirected VGA/keyboard console and serial, all I had to do was drop to the loader prompt at the boot loader menu to enter: set console=comconsole set boot_serial=yes boot From then on, the VGA console was ignored until I rebooted. But in 9.x (currently trying 9.0-RC2 from the usb image), I have to interrupt an earlier loader to use -h or -D to enable serial(dual) console support at all. I then enter the two variables above as I usually do, then specify my terminal type (xterm), then choose "Live CD" which prints: Updating motd: /etc/motd is not writable, update failed. Configuring syscons: blanktime. Starting cron. Starting background file system checks in 60 seconds. Wed Nov 23 19:03:02 UTC 2011 but then it prints the FreeBSD banner and spawns the login: prompt on the VGA console instead. Is there something else I can set during the boot process to make this work? I could try modifying the configuration on the usb image to suit my site but this is more modification than I required in the past and surprisingly different. Please let me know if I can provide more information or help in some way. Thanks. If I don't hear back in a few days or so, I'll make a PR.