Re: Console on both VGA/Keyboard and IPMI

[Dima Veselov <kab00m%lich.phys.spbu.ru@localhost>]

Greetings,

as far as I know linux is the only system currently supporting dualhead console (via console=vga,ttyS0 boot option). However few remarks on serial console:

1) Usually IPMI console is buffered, so you will get buffered messages (even more than screen can fit) when you connect to IPMI. This can be different for different ways to connect to it (SOL, ssh to IPMI, etc) and different hardware.

2) Depending on your needs you can always use spare terminal on vga or serial port.

3) you might use only one device for bootloader, starting kernel messages and possibly to gdb, but other messages could be redirected to any terminal via syslog.

4) console->serial BIOS redirection is also sometimes working good so you get both working at the same time (all IPMI systems have that option).


On Wed, Jul 04, 2018 at 06:03:25PM +0200, Edgar Fuß wrote:
> Is there any way to have the console (more precisely: the thing where panic 
> messages go and where DDB operates on) both on VGA/Physical Keyboard (for 
> on-site access) and something like IPMI SOL (for off-site access)?
> 
> As far as I understand, I can have the IPMI BMC hijack the serial port, but 
> I prefer to have my console on VGA (because I can switch off the monitor and 
> still see one screenfull of messages as soon as I turn it on).
> 
> I guess I can view the VGA framebuffer with a graphical WEB browser connected 
> to the IPMI port but would prefer a more sensible approach.

-- 
Sincerely yours,
Dima Veselov
Physics R&D Establishment of Saint-Petersburg University