network console

network console

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

Has anybody attempted to implement console on network interface (with or 
without encryption, preferably with some form of authentication)? 
Either using TCP, UDP, Ethernet datagrams, or whatever.  Possibly with 
LILO support so that LILO prompt can be accessed through it too (OK, 
LILO support is probably *way* too much to ask for, but maybe some other 
more complex boot loader?).

I know the security implications of using such an console, but for my 
home environment, if something like that existed it would be quite 
handy.  I have a box with no keyboard/monitor, and to use serial console 
I'd have to route loooooong serial cable through half of my house, and I 
already have network cable in place (took me half of the day to route 
that one, and another half of the day to wash myself from all the dirt 
and dust hidden in most obscure places that light of the day never touches).

If such a beast exists, what would be required on the client side? 
Linux-only client, or is there Windows client too?

TIA,
Alex

Re: network console

[Christian Kujau]

Aleksandar Milivojevic schrieb:
> Has anybody attempted to implement console on network interface (with or

please read Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt.

> If such a beast exists, what would be required on the client side?
> Linux-only client, or is there Windows client too?

client? well, the machine with netconsole-enabled kernel would be the
"client", the machine with the syslog daemon would be the "server".

-- 
BOFH excuse #202:

kernel panic: write-only-memory (/dev/wom0) capacity exceeded.

Re: network console

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

Christian Kujau wrote:
> Aleksandar Milivojevic schrieb:
> 
>>Has anybody attempted to implement console on network interface (with or
> 
> 
> please read Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt.

Not exactly what I had in mind, but having kernel printk messages sent 
to remote host will be helpfull too.  What I had in mind was actually 
having two-way fully functional network console (something I could also 
use to log onto the machine, say if I screw up firewall settings and 
lock myself out).


-- 
Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@pbl.ca>    Pollard Banknote Limited
Systems Administrator                           1499 Buffalo Place
Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276                     Winnipeg, MB  R3T 1L7

Re: network console

[Christian Kujau]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Aleksandar Milivojevic schrieb:
> 
> Not exactly what I had in mind, but having kernel printk messages sent
> to remote host will be helpfull too.  What I had in mind was actually
> having two-way fully functional network console (something I could also
> use to log onto the machine, say if I screw up firewall settings and
> lock myself out).

that would require an additional and "secure-by-default" device, otherwise
your firewall would be superfluous.
- - serial console
- - setup just another ethX next to your other ethernetdevices and make it a
point-to-point connection to your machine. isdn/ppp dial-in with
authentication will also do here.

i hope i got your point....

- --
BOFH excuse #441:

Hash table has woodworm
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFBskB1+A7rjkF8z0wRAhPhAKCtsfEDYemUeFpsWgalb1jCZfBvEwCgoHW0
BYGc4vk3xI3bVLnagmc1B7U=
=vvN3
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----