Can BIOS output be configured to print to a virtualized serial port?

Can BIOS output be configured to print to a virtualized serial port?

[Kenton Cabiness]

We are trying to configure a system using KVM as an abstraction layer to 
make our software more portable.

We would like to configure our system so that the BIOS output (DHCP 
information in particular) is directed to the same pty as the console 
connection (ttyS0) so that this output can be logged and the boot 
process can be monitored.

It seems that the BIOS (seabios) prints it's output to the graphical 
interface (which ends up being tty1), while the console is ttyS0 when a 
console interface is configured in the XML file.

We are using RHEL 6.1, libvirt-0.8.7-18,  virt-manager-0.8.6-4, 
seabios-0.6.1.2-3, and qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.160.

Is this possible or are we stuck with using using virt-manager (or some 
other VNC application) to monitor the initialization of the virtual 
machines?

Thanks,
Kenton

Re: Can BIOS output be configured to print to a virtualized serial port?

[Bjørn Mork]

Kenton Cabiness <kenton.cabiness@alcatel-lucent.com> writes:

> We are trying to configure a system using KVM as an abstraction layer
> to make our software more portable.
>
> We would like to configure our system so that the BIOS output (DHCP
> information in particular) is directed to the same pty as the console
> connection (ttyS0) so that this output can be logged and the boot
> process can be monitored.
>
> It seems that the BIOS (seabios) prints it's output to the graphical
> interface (which ends up being tty1), while the console is ttyS0 when
> a console interface is configured in the XML file.
>
> We are using RHEL 6.1, libvirt-0.8.7-18,  virt-manager-0.8.6-4,
> seabios-0.6.1.2-3, and qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.160.
>
> Is this possible or are we stuck with using using virt-manager (or
> some other VNC application) to monitor the initialization of the
> virtual machines?

You can use sgabios for this. See http://code.google.com/p/sgabios/


Bjørn