Kazutaka YOKOTA wrote to Ryan Thompson:
> >Maybe there is a valid reason for this, but when I attempt to boot the 4.0
> >kern.flp without a keyboard attached (I share one keyboard between four
> >systems, here), it displays keyboard: no and the BTX loader message, and
> >ceases to display ANY output on the attached monitor (though it does
> >continue to access the disk, I'm assuming, until the MFS root floppy is
> >needed)?
> >
> >I assume this is because, without a keyboard, the loader assumes a serial
> >console is attached.
>
> Yes. And this has been the behavior since FreeBSD 2.X.
I thought as much.
> >This is not the case in my situation.
> >
> >Isn't there a better way to identify a serial console?
>
> I don't understand. What do you expect the boot loader to do?
I'm not sure, that's why I asked the list :-) Really, what I was asking
is if there is a better way to detect a serial console.. Rather than the
current logic of "If there is no keyboard, there must be a serial
console". I can think of N reasons why a box would have no keyboard
attached, besides having a serial console.
I know very little about serial consoles, but can they not be probed
somehow to determine their existence? If that's not possible, at least,
what I'm suggesting below still sounds reasonable.
> >And, if not, could
> >the loader at least not display a message on the local monitor like
> >"Switching output to serial console...", or better yet, "Switching output
> >to serial console in 10 seconds.. press any key to abort"?
>
> Which key do you mean? The system has found no keyboard, you know :-)
>
> Kazu
Exactly... My suggestion resembles the common BIOS boot message from days
of old:
Keyboard not found. Press [F1] to continue.
The novice reads, laughs out loud, and wonders if the joke is really on
them. After all, how COULD they press F1 if a keyboard does not exist?
The expert checks his/her keyboard connection, (or plugs a keyboard in)
and, indeed, hits F1 to continue. BIOS programmers have been doing it
for about two decades. Why not the FreeBSD boot loader? :-)
My idea is a similar one. Have the boot loader (with a reasonably
configured timeout--we don't want to wait indefinitely) display a similar
message (perhaps with copious beeping), giving the busy sysadmin a chance
to switch keyboards, or at least notice that a keyboard was not detected.
If I install FreeBSD on multiple systems, I might throw boot disks in a
dozen machines so I don't have to wait for each one. I come around with
my $370 keyboard later to start the actual installs over NFS. I call it
'pipelining' :-)
--
Ryan Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Systems Administrator, Accounts
Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161
SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com
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