Hardware Console Redirection

[Brian A. Seklecki]

> redirection) and use "consdev com0". (Unless you used the bios console
> direction at > 9600 bps)

Right, and the Dell PE uses "com 2", or "com1" (when properly counting 
from 0), ah la 0x2F8 which is logically connected to a serial port on the 
DRAC5 via the daughterboard connection.

And that's where Dell, Intel, and Phoenix went totally wrong.

Another big problem with mixing hard and soft serial console redirection 
(at least with FreeBSD) is that kernel panic/trap message output doesn't 
always make it to the serial console (such as UVM faults), where with VGA 
console you almost always get the message.

This killed us several times with FBSD 5.3 and some NFS bugs.

Plus when you're doing serial console redirection, your console server has 
to be configured to be connected 100% of the time and log output to a 
file.  If you get a panic and need to connect on-demand, you'll have 
missed that message to the buffer otherwise.

With the Real Weasel, you could connect on demand and force a screen
refresh/redraw and it would grab the current VGA framebuffer and re-write 
to the TTY.

---

The only macro keys you get with Dell are:

         Press the spacebar to pause...

         KEY MAPPING FOR CONSOLE REDIRECTION:

         Use the <ESC><0> key sequence for <F10>
         Use the <ESC><!> key sequence for <F11>
         Use the <ESC><@> key sequence for <F12>

         Use the <ESC><Ctrl><M> key sequence for <Ctrl><M>
         Use the <ESC><Ctrl><H> key sequence for <Ctrl><H>
         Use the <ESC><Ctrl><I> key sequence for <Ctrl><I>
         Use the <ESC><Ctrl><J> key sequence for <Ctrl><J>

         Use the <ESC><X><X> key sequence for <Alt><x>, where x is any 
letter
         key, and X is the upper case of that key

         Use the <ESC><R><ESC><r><ESC><R> key sequence for <Ctrl><Alt><Del>

~BAS