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Date:      Fri, 15 May 1998 11:14:39 +0930
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Jim Yuill <jjyuill@mindspring.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: seeking advice re: configuring a serial console
Message-ID:  <19980515111439.D305@freebie.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980512153053.0069d650@pop.mindspring.com>; from Jim Yuill on Tue, May 12, 1998 at 03:30:53PM -0400
References:  <3.0.1.32.19980512153053.0069d650@pop.mindspring.com>

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On Tue, 12 May 1998 at 15:30:53 -0400, Jim Yuill wrote:
> Can anyone please provide advice about configuring a serial console?  I
> can't figure out how to get the "boot:" prompt, and the preceding boot
> messages, to show up on the serial console.
>
> When the system first boots, the initial messages- including the "boot:"
> prompt- show up on ttyv0 (the monitor connected to the video card).  After
> the "boot:" prompt about three lines of messages appear on ttyv0.  After
> that all the boot console-messages go to the serial terminal ttyd0.
>
> I'd like all the console messages- especially the "boot:" prompt- to go to
> the serial terminal.
>
> Any advice would be most appreciated.  I've probably just neglected a step
> in the configuration process.  Listed below is the steps I've taken so far.

I'm pretty sure you can't.  Certainly the serial console is a FreeBSD
function, not a BIOS function, so it can't work until FreeBSD is in
control of the machine.  All messages before the "boot:" prompt are
created by the BIOS.

The boot: message itself is an uncertain case.  It comes from the
bootstrap, technically not part of FreeBSD, though it's supplied with
it.  The trouble is, when it starts it can't know where to write to
until it reads in the commands, so I don't think it's possible to get
it to write to the serial console.  I suppose it would be possible to
rewrite the bootstrap to always use the serial console, but I don't
know of anybody who has done it.

Greg
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