From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 30 01:01:30 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F314B106564A for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:01:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dnewman@networktest.com) Received: from mail3.networktest.com (mail3.networktest.com [69.55.234.104]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D2FBD8FC12 for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:01:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [69.55.234.104]) by mail3.networktest.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE6052560D7 for ; Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:42:37 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail3.networktest.com ([69.55.234.104]) by localhost (mail3.networktest.com [69.55.234.104]) (maiad, port 10024) with ESMTP id 51060-02 for ; Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:42:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from dhcp134.eng.networktest.com (ns.networktest.com [205.147.16.129]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: dnewman@networktest.com) by mail3.networktest.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 76B4F2560D4 for ; Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:42:35 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <4ED57BFA.7030105@networktest.com> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:42:34 -0800 From: David Newman Organization: Network Test Inc. User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111105 Thunderbird/8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: serial console access on ZFS server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:01:31 -0000 I'm having difficulty gaining serial console access to an 8.2-RELEASE box running ZFS on its root partition. I would appreciate pointers to help determine if this is a FreeBSD issue, or something external like BIOS or cabling. The server is a vanilla 1U Supermicro motherboard with AMI BIOS. The BIOS is configured to run headless and to allow remote access via COM1. There is no monitor, keyboard, or mouse attached. FreeBSD is configured to use ZFS in all partitions. The server works fine in all regards except wrt serial access. /boot/loader.conf has this: console="comconsole" zfs_load="YES" vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:zroot" aio_load="YES" /boot.config has this: -Dh and /etc/ttys has this: ttyu0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on secure The machine shows that tty exists: # ls -l /dev/ttyu0 crw------- 1 root wheel 0, 36 Nov 29 14:02 /dev/ttyu0 But there doesn't appear to be a device bound to it: # grep -i 'irq 4' /var/run/dmesg.boot uart0: <16550 or compatible> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0 # ls -l /dev/uart0 ls: /dev/uart0: No such file or directory # ls -l /dev/acpi0 ls: /dev/acpi0: No such file or directory I'm attempting to connect via a known-good null modem cable (DB9 on both ends) and a known-good USB serial dongle attached to my Mac, using the Zterm program. This setup works fine for other serial devices. Thanks in advance for troubleshooting clues. dn