Re: not working /dev/console

<<On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 12:05:42 -0500, I wrote:

> This machine is about a year old (that's how long it's taken me to
> actually get around to setting it up).  I'm contemplating trying to get
> some Dell firmware updates just to see if that makes things any
> better.

So it turns out that it was a Dell issue, just not the sort of Dell
issue that I was expecting.

On these systems, if console redirection is enabled, UEFI console I/O
*always* goes to the DRAC.  This can only go to what Dell calls
"COM2".  However, there are two other settings in the Dell BIOS, one
of which has two options: "Serial Device1=COM1, Serial Device2=COM2"
and "Serial Device2=COM1, Serial Device1=COM2", and after the OS takes
control, the DRAC is connected to the wrong "Serial Device".  So the
setup I had (based on Warner's email from November) actually does
work, iff that configuration setting is flipped.  (Most other vendors'
motherboards only allow SOL on uart1 and don't provide any routing
controls.  The third setting in the Dell BIOS controls whether the
physical serial port on the chassis is connected to the DRAC or to the
other motherboard serial port.)

I probably knew all of this once, but the last time I bought a Dell
for anything was pre-UEFI-being-mandatory.

-GAWollman