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Date:      Thu, 10 Jan 2002 15:26:17 -0500
From:      Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org>
To:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   serial console + boot blip
Message-ID:  <20020110202617.GA13083@ussenterprise.ufp.org>

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I have a few machines configured for serial consoles (my first),
and have found an oddity.

Basically I did the "-P" boot.config thing, and the 'set
console=comconsole' in loader.rc.  This works fine.  I then run a
getty on the 'console' in ttys.  When connected to a Cisco terminal
server, all works well.  I telnet to the port, get the serial
console, can log in.  Most importantly for the problem below when
I log out the terminal server automatically drops the telnet
connection.  I believe this is due to DTR going down after the
shell exits, but I'm not positive so it may be some other control
signal.

Anyway, to the problem.  This creates two issues, one I can live with,
one I want to fix.

1) If the machine is off, you can't open a telnet connection (no DTR
   high, I believe).  So, when someone first turns it on  you have 
   to log in quickly, and miss the first few lines of boot.
   I can live with this.

2) Once you get in while it's booting, you can watch the boot message.
   However, when the kernel messages are done and the scripts start
   (eg, the change from bold to regular on a normal CRT) the connection
   is closed.  It looks like init starting resets the serial port in
   a way that makes it die again.

   This is what I would like to fix.

As as aside, I'm also thinking it might be useful to have a prompt
at that point (on serial console anyway) asking if you want to go
into single user mode, since you don't get to select that earlier
with a serial console.

Have others noticed this behavior?  Does anyone know a way to
work around it?  Does some init genuis know why this happens?

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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