Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!jkh From: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: serial port as console Date: 6 Jan 1996 06:34:41 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 15 Message-ID: <4cl561$p3b@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <rfn382yn1t.fsf@puma.cs.byu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: violet.berkeley.edu In article <rfn382yn1t.fsf@puma.cs.byu.edu>, Phillip J. Windley <windley@lal.cs.byu.edu> wrote: >Is it possible to use FreeBSD in a configuration where there is no video >card and only a serial port console? I'm rack mounting a bunch of systems >and video switchers are expensive and serial switchers are cheap... As long as your motherboard's BIOS doesn't have fits at the thought of missing its VGA or keyboard, you can install a version of the boot blocks which will go to the serial port first for the console. Have a look at /sys/i386/boot/biosboot/Makefile and see the FORCE_COMCONSOLE option which is currently commented-out there. Once you have the new ones built and installed in /usr/mdec, just whap them on your disk with `disklabel -B wd0|sd0'. Reboot and your serial port will be the console. Jordan