serial/ether console & ramblings

[Eric Anderson]

Danny Braniss wrote:
> hi,
> 	I was about to plunge in and 'try' to cleanup the serial console
> stuff, when it downed on me that newer machines are arriving without serial
> port! there goes that idea. So USB/serial dongle came to mind, might
> work, but messy, FireWire is not universaly available.
> So, why not serial over ethernet? IPMI 'was' to have solved
> this, but it will (if at all) work on server class MB only, and im still
> looking for a Unix Viewer.
> 
> 	In my case, i have been using the serial console to debug stuff, but
> being of the old school, i try to stay away from debuggers :-), so
> printf and stack trace will do.
> 
> 	So here are some of my quesions:
> 		o - is there some standard? ok, refrase, are there some
> 	 	    standards?
> 		o - any WIP?, i'm checking out Robert Watson's ethercons
> 		o - any great ideas?

There are a couple of ports that seem to try to use IPMI.  I haven't 
tried them yet though.  (sysutils/freeipmi and sysutils/ipmitool).

I can tell you that being about to do serial over ethernet (and possibly 
power cycling) would be incredibly handy.

Eric



-- 
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Eric Anderson        Sr. Systems Administrator        Centaur Technology
A lost ounce of gold may be found, a lost moment of time never.
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