beastiality

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 04:47:00AM +0900, Randy Bush wrote:
> on the serial console, i am seeing twirlies doubled, as in
> 
> //
> 
> and the beastie is very tortured
> 
>  +-----------------------------------------++¿Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä|Ä-Ä                                      ||³
>  ||³                                       ||³             ,        ,     ,,     ||³        ,,                             ||³            /(        )`  //((     ||³        Welcome to FreeBSD!oo  FFrreeee|BSSDD!!       \ \___   / |  \\  \\___||³      //  ||                           ||³            /- _  `-/  '  //--  __ ||³``--//    ''                           ||³           (/\/ \ \   /\((//\\//  \||³1. Boot FreeBSD [default]BSSDD  [[ddeef|aauulltt]]   / /   | `    \/  //     ||³2. Boot FreeBSD with ACPI enabledwiitth|  AACCPPII  eennaab) /    |/        |||³3. Boot FreeBSD in Safe ModeDD  iinn  S|a            `-^--'`<     '`--^^----'||³4. Boot FreeBSD in single user moden  s|i           (_.)  _  )   /ddee))    _||³5. Boot FreeBSD with verbose loggingtth|             `.___/`    /       ____/||³6. Escape to loader promptllooaaddeerr |p              `-----' /      ``-----||³7. Rebootebboooott                     || <----.     __ / __   \  ____  //  _||³      \\                               || <----|====O)))==) \) /====|)))====)||³\\))  //========||                     || <----'    `--' `.__,' \`----''  ``.||³__,,''  \\                             ||              |        |     ||     ||³        ||                             ||               \       /       /\   ||³Select option, [Enter] for defaultEnntt|e          ______( (_  / \______/_(( ||³or [Space] to pause timer  H--11  ussee|         ,'  ,-----'   |  ,,---------+-----------------------------------------++        `--{__________) -Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä-Ä_____))  
>
> [...]
> spare.psg.com:/root# cat /boot/loader.conf.local
> loader_logo=beastie
> #
> console="comconsole vidconsole"
> comconsole_speed="9600"
> #
> ipfw_load=YES

This is often caused by a combination of two things being enabled
simultaneously: BIOS-level serial console redirection after POST, and
FreeBSD's serial console support.  Effectively, the system BIOS is
"redirecting" VGA output to the serial port, while simultaneously
FreeBSD is doing serial console.

But I've seen different behaviour on different hardware over the years
when the first option is enabled.

- "Doubling of characters" like the above (but sometimes not doubled)
- System hard locking (reset/power cycle required) the instant the boot
  loader tries to do serial (some of my Yahoo! colleagues can confirm
  this one, even when using RedHat)
- System boots/runs fine but no serial output is visible past loader

I have some older Supermicro systems which do even weirder things when
the option is enabled, like lock up after loader.  I've also see
different behaviour on RELENG_7 than I do RELENG_8.

Back to Supermicro systems -- the aforementioned feature is usually
labelled as "Continue C.R. After POST" (C.R. stands for Console
Redirection).  This is not the same thing as disabling BIOS-level serial
console entirely, just that the "Agent" (some sort of interrupt tie-in)
isn't retained after POST.

If your system offers the BIOS option, you can try turning it off and
see if things improve.  Be aware that you will lose the ability to
access things like Option ROMs (SCSI BIOSes, Intel NIC PXE boot
information, etc.).

If your system doesn't offer that BIOS option, then possibly just
leaving console as its default will suffice.

-- 
| 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 |