Thank you guys for the explanation. I don't want to ssh as that will modify
the behavior of my kernel. The option -monitor requires a device, and so
"none" would be viewed as a device (which does not exist).

My goal is to run qemu and have my guests display available via the serial
line (for example /dev/ttyS0). In order to do this, it seems to me that the
guests grub.conf file console parameter needs to be modified (similar to
below); on the host,  qemu needs to be started with "console" option (as
shown below); finally, another terminal should be opened with serial port
capabilities (such as minicom).  Is this correct? If so, how do I get
minicom to connect?

- I've modified my guest kernel /boot/grub/grub.conf file as follows:
title Fedora ...
console=ttyS0,38400n8

- To start qemu the options I use are:
qemu -hda mydisk.img -m 512 -append "root=/dev/hda console=ttyS0" -nographic
-serial pty

- My minicom settings are similar to my grub.conf file, i.e. "Comm
Parameters" are 38400 8N1
If I start qemu in one terminal and minicom in the other, should my guests
display automatically show up in the minicom screen? If not, how do I get
minicom to connect to /dev/ttyS0? So far, my minicom shows as offline. (I've
also tried GtkTerm, with no success).

Thanks again.


> Ah, "graphics" means "display" -- it doesn't matter whether your guest
> VM is running X or using a simple terminal, it all looks like one big
> graphic to qemu.
>
> Said another way, "-nographic" disables the display entirely, whether
> that display is used for graphics or text.
>
> I don't know what you're trying to do with /etc/inittab.  That doesn't
> mean it's wrong, it just means I've never found it necessary to go that
> route.  I'm guessing you should probably undo all your changes there and
> just stick with whatever was the default, and then use the "-nographic
> -monitor none" option I mention above.
>
> -david
>
> On the guest. When you use -nographic, you get a (vritual) pc without
> a monitor, but with a serial port. If your Fedora is not set up to
> have a login on the serial port, you will see nothing when you connect
> a serial cable to the port. You can have login prompts both on serial
> and on screen.
>
> You could also ssh into the guest instead.
>
>
>