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Date:      Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:19:10 +1030 (CST)
From:      Justin Hawkins <justin@tardis.mx.com.au>
To:        "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Serial boot prompt messages and a modem
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.9912221000220.540-100000@tardis.mx.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <38600996.EFC47AFE@newsguy.com>

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On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Daniel C. Sobral wrote:

> Justin Hawkins wrote:
> > 
> > I understand it's not really a bug and perhaps is not worth the code
> > effort. A note in the handbook might not go astray - I am sure a lot of
> > people who need a COM2 console will have modem on COM1.
> 
> A note on the handbook and/or man pages can certainly be done. I'd be
> happy to apply any such changes you volunteer. You might add that before
> trying this, replacing loader.rc with one with the single line "boot"
> will garantee that loader will not stop.

Where is the 'boot' option documented - I couldn't find it in
loader.conf(5). What does it do - does it disable all input, or does it
create a failsafe where is does something sensible in case garbage is
received over the serial line/keyboard.

Regarding the documentation change, something like:

-- 
Note that if you cannot use sio0 because a modem lives on that port, be
sure to have it switched off while you are making the changes below. If
you reboot while the changes are not complete, and the boot loader is
still looking at sio0, the modem will echo  the boot loaders banner
back at the boot loader, most likely causing the boot process to stop.

Once you are sure that the boot loader is looking at sio1 (or whichever
port you have changed it to) the modem can be safely left on during
bootup.
--

This probably fits under the paragraph:

Using a port other than sio0 as the console requires some recompiling. If
you want to use another serial port for whatever reasons, recompile the
boot blocks, the boot loader and the kernel as follows.

in 14.5.4.2.

I think I need to have a look at how to submit documtation changes
properly :-)

While I think of it, it might be worth a bit more explanation in step 7:

7. Write the boot blocks to the boot disk with disklabel(8) and boot from
the new kernel. 

Maybe something like:

7. Write the boot blocks to the boot disk with disklabel(8) with the -B 
option. For instance, if your boot disk is wd0, use 'disklabel -B wd0'

8. Boot from the new kernel.

(Well I hope that's the right way to use disklabel, worked for me :-)

	- Justin







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