From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1759198AbXKGWCV (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:02:21 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1758911AbXKGWCJ (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:02:09 -0500 Received: from godel.catalyst.net.nz ([202.78.240.40]:47876 "EHLO mail1.catalyst.net.nz" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1758859AbXKGWCH (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:02:07 -0500 X-Greylist: delayed 1921 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:02:07 EST Message-ID: <47322E58.7000301@catalyst.net.nz> Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:30:00 +1300 From: Sam Vilain Organization: Catalyst IT (NZ) Ltd User-Agent: Icedove 1.5.0.12 (X11/20070606) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Serial console and the Sun X4100M2 ILOM X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.2.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi all, We're using a PXE / network install system for the SunFire x4100M2. We had a kernel that worked fine for the x4100 and x2100/x2100M2, but this new platform does something funny: after selecting the kernel at the PXElinux prompt, I don't see any kernel messages on the serial console, until the kernel has finished initialising. They are appearing on the VGA console, when I use console=tty0 console=ttyS0. With console=ttyS0 only, they appear nowhere. There is a BIOS setting called "Redirect" that has one option that looks like a smoking gun: "Redirection After BIOS POST". This has three settings: Disable: Turns off the redirection after POST Boot Loader: Redirection is active during POST and during Boot Loader. Always: Redirection is always active (Some OSs may not work if set to Always) It seems that "always" is behaving just like "Boot Loader" says it should - as soon as it would be saying "Loading kernel..." then I see no messages at all. Except perhaps a suprious character like "Á". The "Boot Loader" option then works like "disable" - as soon as PXElinux (or GRUB) loads, the console switches off and I see the "Á". What's got me confounded is that it suddenly wiki comes right after root gets mounted - be that an initrd image, or anything else. What is it that changes then, and how can I make that happen earlier? I found the console.txt file, and it seems that while boot is in progress the "system driver" is active vs the "modular driver". However, I'm not sure why there is a change of driver at that point; I didn't ask for it. I'm coming to the conclusion that the serial console redirection in the BIOS is broken somehow, anyone have any ideas on tracking this down further? -- Sam Vilain, Chief Yak Shaver, Catalyst IT (NZ) Ltd. phone: +64 4 499 2267 PGP ID: 0x66B25843