What about booting a PC with no video card?
Can I do that?
-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Enderby [mailto:">russell.enderby@arris-i.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 10:38 AM
To: Michael H. Warfield
Cc: ">ale@ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] console on serial port
Typically PC's are not happy trying to boot without a keyboard. On alot of
the PC's the bios
will catch no keyboard and report a error and not allow the machine to
continue booting. For
the minimal cash of a keyboard normally a keyboard is the only thing
attached to boxes
(atleast mine).
Suns on the other hand seem to work well like that except when you gank the
keyboard out when
it is running, More times than not it locks the Sun up as do PC's
sometimes.
Keyboards have caused me more hassle than any other perf (except for my most
recent CDRW
fiasco), espically when you are converting a ps2 keyboard to regular
keyboard din.
Anyways did you try it with a keyboard attached to see if it works then?
Russell
Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2000 at 10:21:00AM -0500, Russell Enderby wrote:
> > It sounds like an issue with lilo. I wonder if it is a security concern
for them
> > because if they output to the port and you see it successfully it seems
they must be
> > getting the input correctly but decide not to do anything with it at
that time. Have
> > you ever tried to do the manual 'fsck' over the serial port. That is
the most critical
> > it seems via serial. If you cannot get past that via the serial port
option become
> > worthless pretty quickly.
>
> It's definitely a lilo problem. Once the kernel has control, I
> can provide input to things like fsck just fine. AFAIK... Its suppose
> to work for Lilo as well. I just wonder if it's something screwy because
> there's no physical keyboard attached to the box. It might be getting
> a keyboard error or something that has it's attention on the keyboard
> input and ignoring the serial input.
>
> > Russell
>
> > Michael H. Warfield wrote:
>
> > > On Wed, Feb 16, 2000 at 09:47:13AM -0500, Russell Enderby wrote:
> > > > My understanding is this is a kernel compile option. I have been
planning on
> > > > setting it up but have not got around to it so I am not sure of the
exact option.
> > >
> > > > But that should point you in the right direction.
> > > > Russell
> > >
> > > It has to be enabled in the kernel but then you also need to
add
> > > an option to the kernel boot configuration in lilo. Here is my lilo
> > > configuration:
> > >
> > > ===================================================
> > > boot=/dev/hda
> > > map=/boot/map
> > > install=/boot/boot.b
> > > prompt
> > > timeout=50
> > > serial=0,38400n8
> > > image=/boot/vmlinuz
> > > append="console=tty1 console=ttyS0,38400"
> > > label=linux
> > > root=/dev/hda1
> > > read-only
> > > ===================================================
> > >
> > > The "serial" line in the global options enables lilo to use
serial
> > > port 0 at 38.4K no parity and 8 bits. The "append" line in the image
> > > section appends the serial console information to the kernel boot
options
> > > and says the console can be on virtual terminal tty1 or on serial
terminal
> > > ttyS0. Since the later is the last in the line /dev/console is mapped
> > > to ttyS0.
> > >
> > > Now... I have a problem with this. These options work
perfectly
> > > fine except for one thing. Lilo displays the prompt over the serial
line
> > > to the system at the other end. The kernel boots fine and I get the
console
> > > output to the serial line. However, if I try to type something at
lilo,
> > > say to select another boot image or something, the input data from the
> > > serial line is ignored. I'm forced to wait for it to time out and
boot
> > > the default configuration. If a keyboard is plugged in at the screen
> > > console (which it is not normally) lilo will respond to keyboard
input.
> > > It just won't respond to serial port input.
> > >
> > > I've tried different values of parity and bits, to no effect.
> > > I have not tried slower baud rates (I wish it would go faster than
38.4,
> > > but that's a lilo limitation - not a kernel limitation).
> > >
> > > Anyone know why or what to do about it?
> > >
> > > Kernel version 2.2.14
> > > Lilo 0.21-6
> > >
> > > > Louis Zamora wrote:
> > >
> > > > > I know how to tell lilo to use the serial port as console when
booting. How
> > > > > do I tell the kernel that /dev/console is really the serial port?
> > >
> > > > > thanks,
> > >
> > > > > Louie
> > > > > --
> > >
> > > Mike
> > > --
> > > Michael H. Warfield | (770) 985-6132 | ">mhw@WittsEnd.com
> > > (The Mad Wizard) | (770) 331-2437 |
http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
> > > NIC whois: MHW9 | An optimist believes we live in the best of
all
> > > PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471 | possible worlds. A pessimist is sure of
it!
>
> --
> Michael H. Warfield | (770) 985-6132 | ">mhw@WittsEnd.com
> (The Mad Wizard) | (770) 331-2437 |
http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
> NIC whois: MHW9 | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
> PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471 | possible worlds. A pessimist is sure of it!
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