> >Makes me think some sort of OS has to be present before using cu. I have a
> >couple of sparc machines with no monitor/OS that I would love to throw an
> >OS
> >on..
> >
> >Zach
>
> sure you can, but the hardware boot ROM has to support it. I ran most of
> my non-intel systems headless for years. If you're running i386/amd64
> boxes a lot have a BIOS setting called console "redirection" or something
> similar. While it works it's no where near as friendly as the non-intel
> workstation/server ROM monitors. However as more and more intel/amd boxes
> showed up in lights out data centers the server manufactures started
> supporting real remote management solutions.
>
Typically for OpenBSD, you need to set the PC bios on an i386
machine to do console redirection at 9600 baud (8N1) until the OS boots
and *NOT* do it afterwards. This is because if it does it afterwards then
typically the bios eats com0 and you can't use it from OpenBSD for
a real serial tty.
The trick is finding the right settings in the stupid bios. and
of course since PC bios's are based on 15 years of programming
by monkeys with typewriters it can be a bit of an effort sometimes, assuming
your bios supports it, and it works.
we run most of our i386 boxen here headless with serial consoles.
we either connect direct with tip/cu, or we run conserver from ports,
which is a wonderful thing.
-Bob
