Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:20:15 +0200 From: Jonathan McKeown <jonathan@hst.org.za> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> Subject: Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work. Message-ID: <200709210920.15990.jonathan@hst.org.za> In-Reply-To: <200709202116.l8KLGjGO051565@dc.cis.okstate.edu> References: <200709202116.l8KLGjGO051565@dc.cis.okstate.edu>
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Hi Martin I often use the serial console for installs just to save digging out a screen and keyboard - especially on servers which are going to run headless anyway. What I do whenever I download release ISOs is unpack the disc-1 image to disk (tar now does this, I believe), add the line console="comconsole" to boot/loader.conf in the directory which is the root of the CD, and then make a new ISO and burn a new serial install CD. Booting from this CD switches to the serial console sometime after the boot loader but before the boot menu, from which you can drop back down to the boot loader if needed. I've used this method to do a successful remote install: a technician on site linked the serial ports of two boxes with a null-modem cable, put the serial boot CD in one of them, and I logged into the other over ssh and used tip to see the serial port. He powered up the spare box with the CD in it and I did the rest from 1000 miles away - which for some reason impresses the heck out of a Windows technician. HTH Jonathan
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