Subject: Re: Serial Console Installs
To: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
From: Peter Eisch <peter@boku.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 05/22/2007 20:31:13
On 5/22/07 2:22 PM, "Manuel Bouyer" <bouyer@antioche.eu.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 11:30:50AM -0500, Peter Eisch wrote:
>> 
>> Is there a way to select to the iso bootloader on an install build to select
>> the console for the install?
>> 
>> I have a system (Dell 2650) with the console redirection config:
>> 
>>   Console Redirection .............. Serial Port 1
>>   Remote Terminal Type ............. VT100/VT220
>>   Redirection After Boot ........... Disabled
>> 
>>> From the serial console I never get to see the bootloader prompt.  If I
>> change the Redirection After Boot Property to Enabled, I can see the
>> bootloader but I lose console once the kernel starts initializing.
>> 
>> If I use the DRAC/KVM on the console and catch the bootloader to issue:
>>   consdev com0 
>> I can continue with the serial console installation flawlessly.  It would be
>> nice to eliminate the requirement of the KVM though.
>> 
>> What is the method to build an install image using an alternative kernel
>> named SINSTALL which is simply:
>> -------------
>> include "arch/i386/conf/INSTALL"
>> options        CONSDEVNAME="\"com\"",CONADDR=0x3f8,CONSPEED=9600
>> -------------
>> This would get me two iso images that I could have available.
> 
> This would require some hacking in distrib/i386 to make use of the
> alternate kernel.
> I think it's easier to just create a bootfloppy-big-com, which is
> bootfloppy-big with the bootblock configured to use the serial console.
> See bootfloppy-com/Makefile to see what to add to bootfloppy-big/Makefile to
> have a serial bootblock.
> 

So I'd guess this isn't something that can be done by passing an arg to
build.sh?  I'll see if I can forge my wrapper to do the fiddling of the
Makefiles without tainting the source too much.

Thanks,

peter