From owner-freebsd-current Thu Nov 19 13:57:34 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA24824 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 13:57:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ceia.nordier.com (m2-60-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.124]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA24791 for ; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 13:57:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id XAA07970; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 23:54:47 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199811192154.XAA07970@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: /boot/loader & comconsole In-Reply-To: from ADRIAN Filipi-Martin at "Nov 19, 98 12:20:07 pm" To: adrian@ubergeeks.com Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 23:54:45 +0200 (SAT) Cc: rnordier@nordier.com, gallatin@cs.duke.edu, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG ADRIAN Filipi-Martin wrote: > On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, Robert Nordier wrote: > > > 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? Probably sensible to avoid the BIOS services then: other people are sure to be bitten by this sooner or later. If you're up for it, I can send you some patches to try in a day or two (most likely using Joerg's serial.S routines from biosboot: the boot2 stuff makes use of different calling conventions to save space). -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message