On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Brian Buhrow wrote:

> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 05:54:11 +0000
> From: Brian Buhrow <buhrow@cats.ucsc.edu>
> To: Matthias Drochner <drochner@zelux6.zel.kfa-juelich.de>,
>     Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil>
> Cc: port-i386@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: Re: Question about biosboot.sym and serial consoles
> 
> 	How hard would it be to modify the boot blocks to read a configuration
> file from the file system to allow users to switch console types without
> having to recompile them?  I'd like to use the same boot block everywhere,
> and there are times when it is  necessary for me to switch to a serial
> console.  This is trivial on Suns because the rom supports this sort of
> game, but pcs are a different kettle of fish.  Also, can the boot blocks
> tell the kernel which console to use or do I need to recompile the kernel
> for serial console support as well?  That is, if I take a generic kernel
> which normally uses the standard keyboard/video card as a console, put it
> on a machine with a serial supporting boot block, will I get console on the
> serial port if the boot block selects it for the kernel as well?
> -thanks
> -Brian
the boot blocks do tell the kernel which one to use, one thing I would find
usefull is the ability to switch between serial and video console is the
abscence/precence of the keyboard, this requires no use interaction in
normal usage, but makes it easy to get back to the video when desired.
We put this in locally and it works well.

                   Dave Stanhope
                   dms@celtech.com