On 2 November 2014 06:15, Theo de Raadt <dera...@cvs.openbsd.org> wrote: > A "serial console" is a serial port on a machine exposing it's boottime > console. OpenBSD cannnot use select a USB serial connector as a console > tty, no more than it can select some random serial pci card. The logic > for finding the device happens too late. > > If this is the other way around, then the laptop is just doing serial. > What's console about it. It is just talking serial, to something else > which is console. You don't need the word console, nor do we need > to know the colour of the cable you choose. > > Naddy is precise. You used the wrong words.
Ah, okay. Thank you. But even if the laptop end of the setup wouldn't properly be called a serial console, do I understand correctly then that it would work to use it with a run-of-the-mill USB-to-serial adapter in the way I describe? Meaning, use it as a terminal (or terminal emulator, or technically, laptop, running OpenBSD, running a terminal emulat-- arrgh!). Anyway, do I understand correctly that it would work the way I expect, and that (my imprecise terminology notwithstanding) Patrick's reply is applicable? And further, just to make sure I'm really getting this, is it actually correct then to call the (bog standard) physical RS-232 port on the headless computer the serial console? Or am I still on the wrong track, and does a real, genuine, proper serial console involve custom hardware beyond a standard physical serial port?
