Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 23:55:02 -0800 (PST) From: Doug White <dwhite@gumbysoft.com> To: Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino@speakeasy.net> Cc: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Terminal question for U5 Message-ID: <20050309235118.I53915@carver.gumbysoft.com> In-Reply-To: <4229781B.1040609@speakeasy.net> References: <4229608E.3040903@speakeasy.net> <20050305000429.A4084@carver.gumbysoft.com> <4229781B.1040609@speakeasy.net>
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On Sat, 5 Mar 2005, Phil Stracchino wrote: > Doug White wrote: > > On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, Phil Stracchino wrote: > > > > > >>I hope this is a quickie question: What can I do to get a usable > >>terminal for sysinstall on a Sun Ultra5, using the default built-in > >>framebuffer attached to a Sun 365-1343 17" color monitor? I have a > >>perfectly good FreeBSD 5.3 sparc64 CD here which I can't install from > >>because I can't see what I'm doing in sysinstall, because all the > >>available terminal types appear to assume my screen is 80x25. > > > > > > Use a serial console. Plug in a null-modem cable into the serial port, > > connect the other end to a system of choice, and unplug the sun keyboard > > from the U5. Fire up a terminal emulator on the other system. Boot the U5 > > from CD and follow the prompts. If you have another FreeBSD or Linux > > machine you can typically get the color menus to work :) > > Thanks. I suspected something like that might be the case. > Unfortunately, I don't have a working serial-console cable here with me. A decent null modem cable, or parts to make one, should be US$10-$20 at any computer shop. An essential part of any sysadmin's toolkit. I have one with 9 and 25-pin plugs on both ends, and a male-male gender changer to plug into Suns. I've had it for well over 10 years. > > Note that you can't run X on the builtin display anyway so unless you > > particularly like the slow OBP console you'll want to use some other > > method of communication. > > Well, I was figuring the box would run headless. It's tasked to be a > nameserver and not much else at present. But by the sound of things, > unless I can come up with a working serial console cable, I may have to > rethink what to put on it. Solaris still works and is a free download for personal use. :) -- Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve dwhite@gumbysoft.com | www.FreeBSD.org
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