Given motherboard serial ports (like on a desktop, but very few laptops 
anymore), can OpenIndiana handle a serial console? What about a serial console 
on a PCIe card, or worse, on a USB port?

Funny note there: at least with Sun/SPARC hardware, you need a null modem cable 
to connect a terminal, but there's a gotcha: turning off the terminal or 
disconnecting it will generate a hangup, which is equivalent to L1-A, i.e. 
break out of the OS and return to the OpenBoot prompt. One can resume the OS, 
but needs to leave the terminal connected and on. Even terminal concentrators 
or devices providing remote serial port access could have that effect if 
rebooted.

Someone now passed long ago invented a null-modem plug (allowing a more common 
straight-thru cable to be used) that in the housing connecting the ends, also 
had some circuitry so that if that plug was screwed to the system (but not to 
the cable attaching the terminal), one could freely disconnect the terminal 
cable without interrupting the OS. Unfortunately, that was not a commercial 
product; he made them for his employer for in-house use only. I don't know if 
he documented the design, and doubt I could find it even if he did. One can 
work around it with KEYBOARD_ABORT=alternate in /etc/default/kbd file, which 
sets carriage-return tilde CTRL-b as the abort sequence.

> On May 8, 2023, at 11:37, Stephan Althaus <stephan.alth...@duedinghausen.eu> 
> wrote:
> 
> On 5/8/23 17:31, Gary Mills wrote:
>> Is anybody running OI on a computer that does not have a console?
>> I have a system that I installed with the GUI image, and with an
>> HDMI console and USB keyboard and mouse.  Now I'd like to use this
>> system without all of them.
>> 
>> Can I just disconnect them?  Will OI boot fully without a console?
>> Can I attach a console later, if I happen to need it?
>> 
>> 
> Hello!
> 
> As I can tell from history, you should set the BIOS to ignore these errors on 
> boot like "no keyboard attached". Try this with only the monitor attached, no 
> keyboard/mouse..
> 
> I have a Backup server without keyboard/mouse/monitor attached that i power 
> up from remote via IPMI,
> that boots into OI just perfextly.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Stephan
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> openindiana-discuss mailing list
> openindiana-discuss@openindiana.org
> https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> 


_______________________________________________
openindiana-discuss mailing list
openindiana-discuss@openindiana.org
https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss

Reply via email to