Re: serial console unplugged, boot hangs, help !

["John M. Lockard" <jlockard@admin.lsa.umich.edu>]

I noticed the question of "how much does that puppy cost?", but
slipped and deleted the message...

Going from memory of the last few purchases, I'm thinking we add
about $225-$235 for each system.  Also note, that it's currently
only available in ISA.  The are working on a PCI board, but don't
yet have a date.

On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, John M. Lockard wrote:

> I see that it hasn't been mentioned yet...
> 
> We got a PC Weasel here for testing, to see if we'd want to consider
> using it in the field.  It acts as a serial based MDA and keyboard
> adapter.  We've been absolutely, positively pleased with the thing.
> 
> We're now building the Weasel card into every x86 server purchase
> that me make.
> 
> www.realweasel.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Richard Bignell wrote:
> 
> > I'm building a box for co-location at an ISP, I want to set it up 
> > with a serial console so there is no need to stuff a keyboard in the 
> > rack and no reboot required to recognise a just-connected keyboard.
> > 
> > I've trawled through the misc archive and done the stuff with option 
> > COMCONSOLE, /etc/boot.conf, and /etc/ttys. The machine boots OK and 
> > apart from a few lines:
> > 
> > Using Drive: 0 Partition: 3
> > reading boot...
> > probing: pc0 com0 apm mem[636K 61M a20=on]
> > disk: fd0 hd0
> > >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 1.23
> > switching console to com0
> > 
> > nothing else happens on the VGA screen. Great, ...but... I checked 
> > what happens if the terminal (minicom on Linux in my case) is 
> > unplugged at boot time, and the boot process *hangs* !! When I plug 
> > in the console, it all starts happenning immediately - as if the boot 
> > program is waiting on some characters or response back from the 
> > terminal.
> > 
> > Any ideas ? Any solutions ? Else I'll have to go back to keyboard + 
> > mouse + VGA and I'd rather not...
> > 
> > P.S. this is 2.6, patches 001 - 020 applied.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Richard
> > --
> > Richard Bignell
> > rjb@pierconsulting.com
> > 
> 
> --jlockard - Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings.
>              They did it by killing all those who opposed them.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>  John M. Lockard - SysAdmin III | Merit Network, Inc., Suite 2000
>        jlockard@merit.edu       | 4251 Plymouth Road, Bldg. 1
>        jlockard@umich.edu       | Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2785
>  http://www.merit.edu/~jlockard | 734-647-9811 | 734-647-3185 FAX
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 

--jlockard - "Reflection, surprise, terror, for the future." - Kosh