*BSD News Article 59850


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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From: deborah@velara.microunity.com (Deborah Gronke Bennett)
Subject: Re: Redirecting /dev/console ?
In-Reply-To: kadow@komondor.cig.mot.com's message of 23 Jan 1996 00:05:26 GMT
Message-ID: <oqn37etsqo.fsf@velara.microunity.com>
Sender: deborah@velara.microunity.com
Organization: MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc.
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References: <4e18o6$s70@newdelph.cig.mot.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 23:07:43 GMT
Lines: 30

In article <4e18o6$s70@newdelph.cig.mot.com> kadow@komondor.cig.mot.com (Kevin Kadow) writes:


   Under FreeBSD, how difficult is it to redirect the console to a serial port
   so as to set up a headless workstation?

   I have a box I want to run in a remote area, and would prefer to not have
   a keyboard/monitor tied up there just to use the console- it would be much
   easier to simply hook the serial port to a dumb terminal on a switchbox
   and access the console that way.

						   Kevin

   (The PC has an option to ignore the missing keyboard, so that's not a problem)

I use a serial console all the time, but my PCs still have the keyboard
and monitor attached. You will need to build your kernel with the
COMCONSOLE option. This will by default send almost all the boot output
to the COM1 (1st serial port, /dev/cuaa0). You will need a null-modem
type cable to connect to either another workstation (I use a sun in
the lab, and an SGI in my office) or a dumb terminal.

Caveat: I'm still using FreeBSD 2.0.5.


-- 
----------
Deborah Gronke Bennett 	(WD5HJH) 	kernel and device drivers engineer
deborah@microunity.com			(408)-734-8100
MicroUnity Systems Eng., 255 Caspian Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1015 USA