Serial console/remote install discussion

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 05:12:40AM -0700, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 11:52:23AM +0200, Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
> > Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu at FreeBSD.org> writes:
> > > I'd like to open up a discussion regarding FreeBSD serial console and
> > > the aspect of installation via serial console.
> > 
> > how about you go read loader(8) and loader.conf(5) first?
> 
> I've read them, thoroughly, and many times over the years.  What exactly
> is your point in saying this?  Did you read *anything* I wrote?  :-)

I'll retract this statement entirely, and apologise profusely.

It seems lots of documentation (both manpages and the Handbook) have
been updated since the last time I sat down and thoroughly read them.

Regarding Item #2 ("FreeBSD serial vs. VGA") in my original mail:

The loader(8) manpage talks about a 'boot_multicons' option, and refers
you to conscontrol(8); I hadn't heard of these until now.

Regarding Item #3 ("Stock serial port speed 9600bps") and Item #4
("serial works great in one stage but not the next") in my original
mail:

The loader.conf(5) manpage says it can inherit the serial port speed
from the previous boot stage (specifically boot2).  This means that one
can simply do -S115200 in /boot.config and achieve a higher port speed,
without rebuilding bootblocks and without rebuilding the kernel.

The present version of the Handbook also mentions all of the above:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialconsole-setup.html

Looks like I get to spend the weekend trying out new things.  Thank you
for indirectly pointing these out.

Item #1 (requiring one to build their own installation disks) should
still be discussed.  I got some private mails over that item, and I need
to read them in full; there's concerns with situations where there's
other stuff attached to a serial port, such as a UPS (something I hadn't
thought of).  I'm left thinking it might just be best for an
administrator to snag the FreeBSD ISOs and add a /boot.config there to
address serial console-based installs.  I'll have to try that, and
submit some PRs for Handbook updates explaining how to do it...

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                    jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                           http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                      Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.                  PGP: 4BD6C0CB |