From owner-freebsd-current Thu Nov 19 09:21:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA23363 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 09:21:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from lorax.ubergeeks.com (lorax.ubergeeks.com [206.205.41.241]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA23343 for ; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 09:21:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from adrian@lorax.ubergeeks.com) Received: from localhost (adrian@localhost) by lorax.ubergeeks.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA04942; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 12:20:07 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from adrian@lorax.ubergeeks.com) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 12:20:07 -0500 (EST) From: ADRIAN Filipi-Martin Reply-To: Adrian Filipi-Martin To: Robert Nordier cc: Andrew Gallatin , freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /boot/loader & comconsole In-Reply-To: <199811190902.LAA03790@ceia.nordier.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, Robert Nordier wrote: > One difference between boot loader and the old/new boot blocks, is > that boot loader uses PC BIOS services (int 0x14) for comms; both > lots of boot blocks do direct port I/O, instead. > > The trouble with using the BIOS is that the int 0x14 services (which > tend to be used only to talk to serial printers under DOS) expect to > do hardware handshaking. > > They therefore impose fussier cabling requirements than the boot > blocks or the kernel have. (They don't work with the sloppy 2-wire, > 9-pin null modem cables I have here, for instance.) Ugh... I just discovered tis this morning all by myself. Now that I have six rack mounted machines with serial consoles, I can only reboot them one at a time, because I only have one terminal. I peeked at the code for a second and quickly realized I don't have the necessary docs. Is there any chance of doing away with this limitation? If necessary, I guess I could just wire the CTS/RTS/whatever pins together so it will boot unattended, but that's... uh.. suboptimal. I guess you could call it a null-terminal cable? Adrian -- [ adrian@ubergeeks.com -- Ubergeeks Consulting -- http://www.ubergeeks.com/ ] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message