Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Bill Fink]

I'd like to use the serial port on the XServe as a serial console.
I enabled CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE in a 2.4.20-0.7b (YDL 2.3) kernel,
set the OF input-device and output-device parameters to ttya, and
booted with the kernel argument "console=ttyS0,38400".

This actually works once the system starts booting.  My problem
is that I never get a chance to interact with yaboot and thus for
example can't select a different Linux kernel to boot.  Is there
any way to accomplish this, for example by some suitable modification
to the ofboot.b file in the boot partition?  Or is this just not
supported by the hardware?

Thanks in advance for any help or pointers, or even for informing
me that this is a hopeless quest.

						-Bill

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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 04:33, Bill Fink wrote:
> I'd like to use the serial port on the XServe as a serial console.
> I enabled CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE in a 2.4.20-0.7b (YDL 2.3) kernel,
> set the OF input-device and output-device parameters to ttya, and
> booted with the kernel argument "console=ttyS0,38400".
>
> This actually works once the system starts booting.  My problem
> is that I never get a chance to interact with yaboot and thus for
> example can't select a different Linux kernel to boot.  Is there
> any way to accomplish this, for example by some suitable modification
> to the ofboot.b file in the boot partition?  Or is this just not
> supported by the hardware?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help or pointers, or even for informing
> me that this is a hopeless quest.

iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
on the xserve. Try changing these:

intput-device    "scca"
output-device    "scca"
input-device-1   "scca"
output-device-1  "scca"

Ben.


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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Ethan Benson]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2003 at 10:33:53PM -0500, Bill Fink wrote:
>
> I'd like to use the serial port on the XServe as a serial console.
> I enabled CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE in a 2.4.20-0.7b (YDL 2.3) kernel,
> set the OF input-device and output-device parameters to ttya, and
> booted with the kernel argument "console=ttyS0,38400".
>
> This actually works once the system starts booting.  My problem
> is that I never get a chance to interact with yaboot and thus for

you will need to use a different first stage (magicboot) or none at
all (if OF will boot that way, some models refuse to autoboot
binaries without the CHRP bootinfos).  the default ofboot script
installed with yaboot forces the output to screen to work around
stupid hacks in apple OF to prevent `archaic peecee text' from
appearing on the screen.

> example can't select a different Linux kernel to boot.  Is there
> any way to accomplish this, for example by some suitable modification
> to the ofboot.b file in the boot partition?  Or is this just not

never modify the bootstrap partition, edit the magicboot= line in
/etc/yaboot.conf to point to an alternate script.  you can make a copy
of the /usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot file, then find and change the line:

" screen" output

to

" ttya" output

later im going to fix this so it won't have this problem.

--
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Brad Boyer]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 08:46:25AM +0100, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
> on the xserve. Try changing these:
>
> intput-device    "scca"
> output-device    "scca"
> input-device-1   "scca"
> output-device-1  "scca"

It may be different on the xserve, but on my 7600, the names of the
serial ports in OF are 'ttya' and 'ttyb'.

	Brad Boyer
	flar@allandria.com


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Re: Serial Console on XServ and yaboot???

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 09:51, Brad Boyer wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 08:46:25AM +0100, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> > iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
> > on the xserve. Try changing these:
> >
> > intput-device    "scca"
> > output-device    "scca"
> > input-device-1   "scca"
> > output-device-1  "scca"
>
> It may be different on the xserve, but on my 7600, the names of the
> serial ports in OF are 'ttya' and 'ttyb'.

Those are the alias names I found in an xserve device-tree dump I
keep around here. Looks like Apple changed them since the 7600...

Actually, "scca" and "sccb" are also the alias names on my tipb,
so I beleive this is a change on all newworlds or maybe all
core99's

Ben.


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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Bill Fink]

Hi Ben,

On 12 Mar 2003, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:

> On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 04:33, Bill Fink wrote:
> > I'd like to use the serial port on the XServe as a serial console.
> > I enabled CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE in a 2.4.20-0.7b (YDL 2.3) kernel,
> > set the OF input-device and output-device parameters to ttya, and
> > booted with the kernel argument "console=ttyS0,38400".
> >
> > This actually works once the system starts booting.  My problem
> > is that I never get a chance to interact with yaboot and thus for
> > example can't select a different Linux kernel to boot.  Is there
> > any way to accomplish this, for example by some suitable modification
> > to the ofboot.b file in the boot partition?  Or is this just not
> > supported by the hardware?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help or pointers, or even for informing
> > me that this is a hopeless quest.
>
> iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
> on the xserve. Try changing these:
>
> intput-device    "scca"
> output-device    "scca"
> input-device-1   "scca"
> output-device-1  "scca"

Thanks for the idea, but unfortunately it had no effect, as I saw
no yaboot screens show up when I did a reboot.  Is it possible that
the initial OF uses a different baud rate than 38400 (although I
didn't even see any garbage show up)?

						-Bill

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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 14:19, Bill Fink wrote:
> Hi Ben,
>
> On 12 Mar 2003, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 04:33, Bill Fink wrote:
> > > I'd like to use the serial port on the XServe as a serial console.
> > > I enabled CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE in a 2.4.20-0.7b (YDL 2.3) kernel,
> > > set the OF input-device and output-device parameters to ttya, and
> > > booted with the kernel argument "console=ttyS0,38400".
> > >
> > > This actually works once the system starts booting.  My problem
> > > is that I never get a chance to interact with yaboot and thus for
> > > example can't select a different Linux kernel to boot.  Is there
> > > any way to accomplish this, for example by some suitable modification
> > > to the ofboot.b file in the boot partition?  Or is this just not
> > > supported by the hardware?
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance for any help or pointers, or even for informing
> > > me that this is a hopeless quest.
> >
> > iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
> > on the xserve. Try changing these:
> >
> > intput-device    "scca"
> > output-device    "scca"
> > input-device-1   "scca"
> > output-device-1  "scca"
>
> Thanks for the idea, but unfortunately it had no effect, as I saw
> no yaboot screens show up when I did a reboot.  Is it possible that
> the initial OF uses a different baud rate than 38400 (although I
> didn't even see any garbage show up)?

Hrm... I did manage to get it last time I played with an xserve. I
don't remember the baudrate though (maybe 57600...)

Ben.


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Re: Serial Console on XServe and yaboot???

[Bill Fink]

On 12 Mar 2003, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:

> On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 14:19, Bill Fink wrote:
> >
> > On 12 Mar 2003, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> >
> > > iirc, there is something weird with the OF params for the console
> > > on the xserve. Try changing these:
> > >
> > > intput-device    "scca"
> > > output-device    "scca"
> > > input-device-1   "scca"
> > > output-device-1  "scca"
> >
> > Thanks for the idea, but unfortunately it had no effect, as I saw
> > no yaboot screens show up when I did a reboot.  Is it possible that
> > the initial OF uses a different baud rate than 38400 (although I
> > didn't even see any garbage show up)?
>
> Hrm... I did manage to get it last time I played with an xserve. I
> don't remember the baudrate though (maybe 57600...)

I determined it is indeed 57600.  Does anyone know of any OpenFirmware
parameter on the XServe to set the baud rate of the serial port?
Unfortunately my current console server maxes out at 38400.

						-Bill

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