Subject: Re: Multia serial console
To: Rumi Szabolcs <rumi_ml@rtfm.hu>
From: R. C. Dowdeswell <elric@mabelode.imrryr.org>
List: port-alpha
Date: 02/03/2002 07:01:18
On 71798943= seconds since the Beginning of the UNIX epoch
"Rumi Szabolcs" wrote:
>
>On 2002.01.30 at 10:59 R. C. Dowdeswell wrote:
>
>>was it after the kernel messages or after the rc messages?
>
>after the kernel messages, but before the rc execution i'd say,
>thats why i told "at starting init", but here is the serial
>console output:

Well, I was hoping that it was the more simple problem.  What is
happening looks a little more interesting.

>isa0 at sio0
>com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4: ns16550a, working fifo
>com0: console
>com1 at isa0 port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3: ns16550a, working fifo

>stray isa irq 3
>stray isa irq 4

The stray interrupts may be indicative of the problems.

>root file system type: ffs
>init: copying out path `/sbin/init' 11
>swapctl: adding stray isa irq 4
>de0: autosense failed: cable problem?
>------
>and here is game over...

So, interestingly enough you're getting stray interrupts on the
same IRQ as com0.  This might be interesting..  Also, it looks like
you are getting kernel messages on com0, but not regular output.
This might also help us track down the issue.  In fact, ``swapctl:
adding'' is output by swapctl(8), not by the kernel---so, you have
seen a snippet of userland output in there.

Can you ssh/telnet into the machine when it is in this state, or
is it hung?  If you can ssh into the machine, you can then try to
see if you can cause output to appear on the console via

	echo foo > /dev/console

or some such.  Also, is it possible that the baud rate/parity of
the serial port is being changed by settings in /etc/ttys?  Hmmm,
no you are probably losing too early for that.

Also, does the serial port work acceptably if you are using the
graphical console?  To test that, set it up as on it /etc/ttys and
see if it does getty(8) properly (you want to do that anyway, for
running in serial console mode...)

>btw. those many "unknown vendor ..." messages do not appear
>when using the tga console, i don't know if this is normal...
>but thats another story.

I believe that these messages occur on `some' multias and are not
normally a problem.

>Regards,
>
>Szabolcs

 == Roland Dowdeswell                      http://www.Imrryr.ORG/~elric/  ==
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