I couldn't find any difference in how the kernel was setting up the console that would affect the /proc/$dipid/fd/0 link, so I started looking into userspace.
Busybox's console_init() tries to find and use the real console device. It starts by checking to see if its a serial device in much the same way that serial-console-info does. After determining what it thinks *should* be the right device name, init tries to open that device file. If this fails, it falls back to using /dev/console, which I believe leads to this problem. It turns out that rootskel init only creates two serial devices before calling busybox init - ttyS0 and ttyS1. My system where /proc/$dipid/fd/0 was pointing to /dev/console used ttyS3 as the real console, while my system where /proc/$dipid/fd/0 pointed to the real device used ttyS0. ttyS3 as a serial console is very commonplace for HP ia64 systems, as this is the device typically emulated by the management processor to make the console available over the network. Index: debian/changelog =================================================================== --- debian/changelog (revision 50286) +++ debian/changelog (working copy) @@ -1,3 +1,11 @@ +rootskel (1.58) UNRELEASED; urgency=low + + * Create more serial device files in the ramdisk before calling + busybox init, in case they are needed for a serial console. + Closes: #453749. + + -- dann frazier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:25:03 -0700 + rootskel (1.57) unstable; urgency=low * debian-installer-startup.d/S02netwinder-net: restructure so Index: src/lib/debian-installer/init-udev-devices =================================================================== --- src/lib/debian-installer/init-udev-devices (revision 50286) +++ src/lib/debian-installer/init-udev-devices (working copy) @@ -13,6 +13,6 @@ for i in 0 1 2 3 4; do makedev 600 /dev/tty"$i" c 4 "$i" done -for i in 0 1; do +for i in 0 1 2 3; do makedev 600 /dev/ttyS"$i" c 4 "$(($i + 64))" done -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]