[6.0-BETA2] A question concerning the NetBSD serial console (ipmi sol inside)

[Hugo Silva <hugo%barafranca.com@localhost>]

Hello everyone,


I've been playing with a new NetBSD Xen server and am still in the early 
stages.

Yesterday while performing the installation, we were forced to resort to 
JAVA tools; allow me to explain:

After configuring the BMC network settings, I could visualize the BIOS 
and the NetBSD boot loader from ipmi-console (part of the freeipmi 
package). But as soon as the kernel takes over, the output stops there.

With the java app, we could still see the kernel booting and the 
installer coming up.


My question is this: According to i386/boot_console(8), whatever serial 
console is selected from the bootblocks or the bootloader is passed on 
to the kernel.

Then, howcome dropping to the loader prompt and typing "consdev com1" 
will still show output only as far as when the bootloader releases control?


After installation and installboot'ing -o console=com1, I can see both 
the boot loader and the kernel booting from ipmi-console (and actually 
not showing up anymore @ the java app.. is there a way to have a dual 
console in NetBSD?)


Shouldn't installboot -o console=com1 be equivalent to typing consdev 
com1 @ the bootloader, in the sense that in both cases the kernel would 
select com1 as the console ?


Regards,

Hugo