Subject: Re: ttys(5)
To: None <port-sparc@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-sparc
Date: 11/27/2001 11:07:44
> I want to attach a serial terminal to ttya that I can use as the
> console from time to time.  [...]
> There are other times when I want to be able to attach a
> monitor/keyboard and use *that* as the "console".
> [...conflict over the "console" settings in ttys...]

The right fix to this, I believe, is to have something like
/dev/fbconsole and run getty on both ttya and fbconsole, but _not_ on
console.  I have a fairly clear memory that some NetBSD rev on some
hardware had /dev/kd which was essentially this fbconsole thing; I
don't remember what NetBSD version or what port, though.  I believe
that with the general tendency to move everything to wscons, you will
get /dev/ttyE0 as your fbconsole device and the problem will therefore
go away.

In the meantime, I have no good solution.  I have fairly few machines
that flip between headed and headless, and I generally deal with them
by setting things by hand once logged in.

> And, since ttyb can't (?) serve as the console, there is no way to
> use it to solve the problem (??)

I think it can, for most machines.  "setenv input-device ttyb" and
"setenv output-device ttyb" would be my guesses, but it depends on your
ROM rev.  Check "printenv" output; the variable names are usually
pretty clear.  (If your ROM rev is so old it doesn't have "printenv",
I'm not sure what to do.  Sun-3s have a q command in the monitor and a
defined structure of values in NVRAM, but I don't know how much of that
is true of old SPARCs.)

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