On Thu, 7 Jun 2001 josh@ssimr.com wrote:

> I tried repeatedly to get a connection after resetting the PRAM. No
> luck. I decided that I was using the wrong serial port. I took out the
> modem (which I suspect was not necessary, but in truth I have no idea)
> and I pried off the plastic thingy on the modem port. Then I tried
> again. Voila. 

	Yes, COMM slot modems use one of the onboard serial ports for
output, you can't use both the port and the modem as you discovered. BTW,
reseting the PRAM doesn't reset OFW variables I don't think, you need to
take out the battery for a while to do that or type set-defaults in OFW.

> Thus I accomplish the ability to do exactly what I was doing before
> except now I have a disconnected monitor on my couch. I would love to
> be able to function without the keyboard attached as well, but I don't
> think there is a way as access to open firmware depends on the ability
> to hit the option-command-O-F keys. (i.e. a way I can start from
> scratch without MacOS and get to Open firmware over a serial
> connection.)

	Yes it can, "setenv auto-boot? false" to keep it from auto-booting, and
then do a dev / ls and look for the serial ports. Probably ttya and
ttyb. Do a "printenv output-device" to see what device you are useing now
on the modem port, change it to the oposite device with setenv
output-device ttya or whatever the other port name is. Then do the same
for input-device. Then reset-all and OFW should come up with the prompt on
the printer port.

	MW, can we compile a list of the paths to output devices for
serial consoles on the machines we support? Is there mention in the
FAQ/model support page about ttya being the modem port and how an internal
modem takes the same port on some machines? (probably all OFW PowerMac's
up to the Beige G3)

	

	Chris