*BSD News Article 70840


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From: bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: serial console problems
Date: 13 Jun 1996 13:44:30 +1000
Organization: Kralizec Dialup Unix
Lines: 40
Message-ID: <4po2qu$lfv@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
References: <4p9pbn$31o@news.b-1.de.contrib.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: godzilla.zeta.org.au
Keywords: serial

In article <4p9pbn$31o@news.b-1.de.contrib.net>,
Heiko Blume <src@B-1.de.Contrib.Net> wrote:
>this should most probably go into the FAQ/Handbook. i've setup a serial
>console like this:
>
>- make new kernel with "options COMCONSOLE"
>
>- cd /sys/i386/boot/biosboot/
>- enable "-DFORCE_COMCONSOLE" in the Makefile
>- make clean; make; make install
>
>- disklabel -B sd0
>
>which kind of works if i leave the VGA and keyboard installed.
>if i remove them the kernel will display a nice panic message
>on the serial console when/after probing for sc0 :-(

Disable or don't configure any *GA console drivers if you don't
have a *GA.  The sc0 probe always succeeds and in some cases when
there is no *GA, the driver apparently defaults to a VGA and follows
non-existent VGA BIOS pointers.

>also, the first text that appears on the serial console
>is from the kernel itself. i don't get the boot block
>output, which appears on the VGA instead. not good, i'd like
>to get the boot prompt on the serial :-(

Using FORCE_COMCONSOLE should have made the initial prompt go to
the serial console.  Perhaps the new bootstrap didn't actually
get installed.

>i will now try a kernel without the console driver (sc0),
>but that's not what i intended to do, actually.

Just disable it.  You can skip rebuilding a new kernel with
"options COMCONSOLE" if you disable all non-serial consoles.
Then the console defaults to sio0.  This is only useful if
you don't have or want to use a screen/keyboard of course.
-- 
Bruce Evans  bde@zeta.org.au