Hi
Benji Selano wrote:
> Hi..
>
>
> I need some help in finding info on 2 related subjects...
>
> How do i get linux to forget about the screen and boot into a Serial
> VT Terminal ? (any preferred terminal?)
Actually, I have in front of me 2 PCs, connected by a NULL modem cable
(see http://www.hardwarebook.net on how to make one - I made mine).
One of them is a 486 with no monitor, keyboard or mouse - I control it
from it's big brother.
What you'll need:
1. As some people said, make Linux use the serial console. Look at
/usr/src/linux (or where you keep your kernel sources) under
Documentation/serial-console.txt on how to do that. Basicly - add
something like
console=ttyS1,38400 console=tty0
to your kernel command line to make it use both for startup output.
2. run getty on it - add to /etc/inittab a line like this:
T1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 38400 vt100
make sure your getty knows how to handle serial lines. On my machine
(a Debian 1.3 upgraded to 2.0, then parts of 2.1 and parts of 2.2, which
explains why I have this:) I have 3 versions - mingetty, which doesn't,
getty, which does, and mgetty, for modem (which I don't use). I know
of gettyps (also for modem - quite powerful) and fbgetty (for framebuffer).
You might want also to add to /etc/securetty a line with your serial device.
3. I don't know if it is very helpful, but I symlink /dev/console to ttyS1.
I know some programs write directly there, so you'll see the output.
4. Lilo: add a line like
serial = 1,38400n8
to be able to control lilo (/usr/doc/lilo/Manual.txt.gz or something for doc).
Use a recent version - one of the latest versions sets the line on at boot,
so you can also type (and not only see). Maybe some COMM programs turn it
on from the other side, but I used minicom and it doesn't.
5. Very recently, I added to it's net card a boot ROM someone burnt for me,
with support for net boot (naturally), and with ability to control it from
a serial console. This way, I can boot from the net even if the disk doesn't
work (and I did have problems with it).
I don't know how easy it is to burn an EPROM if you don't have useful friends,
but if you can, you can get the software from
http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/
Actually, it can also boot from floppy, so that can be useful even without
an EPROM burner. Also, http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/FlashCard.tar.gz
has instructions on how to make a flash card. Havn't tried that :-(
6. Last (don't flame me on this!), you can add to DOS, at
autoexec.bat, lines like
mode com2:9600,N,8,1
ctty com2
and you'll get a 'C:\' prompt if you select that from lilo.
Of course, most things won't work (fdisk, edit, ...) but simple
copies, formats, loadlin, etc., will work.
and at least OpenDOS (what I have) can't use more than 9600.
7. Not operational yet, but you might be interested in
http://freebios.sourceforge.net/
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/openbios/
which will probably support serial consoles when they mature, and
http://www.acl.lanl.gov/linuxbios/
that puts linux as the bios - and from their site seems quite working already.
Havn't tried any of them (yet?).
> If at all possible, (all i got from the docs is at the boot: prompt to
> enter linux console=ttyS0 \ 1)... i'm using an Annex terminal server on
> a few SUN machines, what i get are 8 or 16 machines which i can connect
> through one telnet session, and control remotely.. (everything, from
> memory check onwards ), is it possible to connect an x86 linux box to
> such a system??
>
> Thanks
>
> Benji
>
>
> =================================================================
> To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
> the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
> echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Sorry for the long post, as it is off-topic, but since there is no
Serial-Console-HOWTO one can point to, and I worked quite hard to
get to this (e.g. I wrote the 4 lines patch for Lilo's online), I wrote
most of what I know in this area.
didi
=================================================================
To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
