Firewire blues

[Stephan Uphoff]

On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 06:02, Ulrich Spoerlein wrote:
> On Sun, 13.02.2005 at 22:46:29 -0500, Stephan Uphoff wrote:
> > +device dcons
> > +device dcons_crom
> >
> > Then configured/compiled/installed the GENERIC.debug kernel.
> > Copied the kernel.debug file in the GENERIC.debug compile directory to
> > the debug station and rebooted the target machine.
> 
> I tried this with modules first, and failed every time. It needs to be
> compiled into the kernel to really work, which brings me to the next
> problem.
> 
> When dcons_crom is loaded (module or not) and I boot my system (laptop),
> I only get the "kernel output" on screen. All the other output (starting
> from Mounting root from ufs) goes to the firewire console.
> 
> But since I'm using GBDE on this laptop, the startup scripts want me to
> enter my passphrase, which in turn I can only enter via a second machine
> through firewire.
> 
> This _is_ rather unpractical :( and renders single-user console useless.
> What am I doing wrong here?

Changing a line in the function dcons_modevent() (File
sys/dev/dcons/dcons.c or dcons_os.c depending on your sources) should
help you.

 #if __FreeBSD_version >= 500000
  -             if (ret == 0) {
  +             if (ret == 0 && dcons_consdev.cn_pri == CN_DEAD) {
                        dcons_cnprobe(&dcons_consdev);
                        dcons_cninit(&dcons_consdev);
                        cnadd(&dcons_consdev);
                }
#endif


As a work around you should also be able to set 
boot_multicons="YES"
in your /boot/loader.conf file. (Not tested)

On a running system you can use conscontrol to change console devices.

Stephan