Re: Boot (i386) hangs in absence of video hardware

[Scrap Happy <scrap%GMX.com@localhost>]

[following up on my own post... :< ]

On 3/4/2011 2:39 PM, Scrap Happy wrote:
> > - kernel takes over and imediately talks directly to hardware - assuming,
> > as it has been told by the bootloader, that there is a functional vga
> > device
>
> > Now the problem with "consdev com0" could either be serial port
> > parameters, or the bios not allowing access to com0 - as it is busy
> > with the vga emulation.

Actually, I should be able to build a new kernel with:

options CONSDEVNAME=com
options CONSADDR=0x3f8
options CONSPEED=115200

*and*, the magic:

options CONS_OVERRIDE

so the boot loader has *no* say in the choice of console (?).

This would allow me to specify the name of this "new"
kernel in the boot prompt.  Yet, still preserve the old
*working* kernel (so I don't have to botch the development
system to add a serial console *there* if I want to further
modify this disk image!).