Mailing List Archive: Serial console funnies

Serial console funnies

Jan 25, 2005, 4:11 AM

Post #1 of 6 (197 views)

I have a dual-processor machine with no keyboard/monitor on it that I would like
to use for Xen but I'm having problems getting the serial console to work
properly.

I can see the system boot up into dom0 and I get the login prompt so it all
looks setup correctly, but it won't take keyboard input - at least not into the
login process on dom0. if I ssh into the box and try to read from the serial
port I still get nothing.

However, if I do ^a^a^a I can interact with the Xen code, so the serial port
itself is working, it just seems like it's not getting passed down to dom0.

I've had this from 2.0->2.0.3 and also with the latest unstable bk.

FWIW this is my grub entry:

title Xen (2.0/Linux 2.6.10)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz com1=57600,8n1 dom0_mem=131072
module /vmlinuz-2.6.10-xen0 ro root=/dev/sda5 console=ttyS0

--

patrick

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Re: Serial console funnies [ In reply to ]

Ian.Pratt at cl

Jan 25, 2005, 10:05 AM

Post #2 of 6 (194 views)

Permalink

> I have a dual-processor machine with no keyboard/monitor on it that I would like
> to use for Xen but I'm having problems getting the serial console to work
> properly.
>
> I can see the system boot up into dom0 and I get the login prompt so it all
> looks setup correctly, but it won't take keyboard input - at least not into the
> login process on dom0. if I ssh into the box and try to read from the serial
> port I still get nothing.
>
> However, if I do ^a^a^a I can interact with the Xen code, so the serial port
> itself is working, it just seems like it's not getting passed down to dom0.
>
> I've had this from 2.0->2.0.3 and also with the latest unstable bk.
>
> FWIW this is my grub entry:
>
> title Xen (2.0/Linux 2.6.10)
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /xen.gz com1=57600,8n1 dom0_mem=131072
> module /vmlinuz-2.6.10-xen0 ro root=/dev/sda5 console=ttyS0

Are you running a getty on /dev/ttyS0 -- have a look in
/etc/inittab. You'll probably need to edit /etc/securetty
too. Setup is per standard Linux console.

Ian

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Re: Serial console funnies [ In reply to ]

patrick at tykepenguin

Jan 25, 2005, 10:26 AM

Post #3 of 6 (195 views)

Permalink

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 05:05:56PM +0000, Ian Pratt wrote:
>
> Are you running a getty on /dev/ttyS0 -- have a look in
> /etc/inittab. You'll probably need to edit /etc/securetty
> too. Setup is per standard Linux console.

Yes, there's a getty on there - I can see the login prompt. If I boot that
partition using a "normal" Linux kernel it all works fine. I've had this machine
on a serial console for ages.

--

patrick

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Re: Serial console funnies [ In reply to ]

chris at nodnol

Jan 25, 2005, 2:37 PM

Post #4 of 6 (198 views)

Permalink

On 25 Jan 2005, at 11:11, Patrick Caulfield wrote:
>
> I can see the system boot up into dom0 and I get the login prompt so
> it all
> looks setup correctly, but it won't take keyboard input - at least not
> into the
> login process on dom0. if I ssh into the box and try to read from the
> serial
> port I still get nothing.

I have had exactly this problem with every Xen 2.0 release I've tried.
I am definitely running a getty in dom0; I get the actual login prompt.

Is your machine doing some sort of BIOS serial console redirection? My
Dell PE1650 has this turned on, but "off after boot" according to the
settings. As no one else had reported this I'd put the problem down to
Dell weirdness.

Chris.

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Re: Serial console funnies [ In reply to ]

pcaulfie at redhat

Jan 26, 2005, 1:58 AM

Post #5 of 6 (198 views)

Permalink

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 09:37:20PM +0000, Chris Andrews wrote:
>
> On 25 Jan 2005, at 11:11, Patrick Caulfield wrote:
> >
> >I can see the system boot up into dom0 and I get the login prompt so
> >it all
> >looks setup correctly, but it won't take keyboard input - at least not
> >into the
> >login process on dom0. if I ssh into the box and try to read from the
> >serial
> >port I still get nothing.
>
> I have had exactly this problem with every Xen 2.0 release I've tried.
> I am definitely running a getty in dom0; I get the actual login prompt.
>
> Is your machine doing some sort of BIOS serial console redirection? My
> Dell PE1650 has this turned on, but "off after boot" according to the
> settings. As no one else had reported this I'd put the problem down to
> Dell weirdness.

I don't think so - I don't remember seeing anything like that. mind you the box
hasn't had a monitor on in in nearly a year now! It's not a DELL machine, it's a
Western Scientific, fairly old by today's standards it's a dual PIII/750 on (I
think) a VIA chipset.

--

patrick

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Re: Serial console funnies [ In reply to ]

chris at nodnol

Jan 28, 2005, 3:59 AM

Post #6 of 6 (197 views)

Permalink

Patrick Caulfield wrote on 26/01/05 08:58:
> On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 09:37:20PM +0000, Chris Andrews wrote:

>>Is your machine doing some sort of BIOS serial console redirection? My
>>Dell PE1650 has this turned on, but "off after boot" according to the
>>settings. As no one else had reported this I'd put the problem down to
>>Dell weirdness.
>
>
> I don't think so - I don't remember seeing anything like that. mind you the box
> hasn't had a monitor on in in nearly a year now! It's not a DELL machine, it's a
> Western Scientific, fairly old by today's standards it's a dual PIII/750 on (I
> think) a VIA chipset.

Hmm, odd then. I tried adding CONFIG_SERIO_SERPORT, which was the only
serial- or console-related difference between my .config and the current
defconfig that I could see, but there was no difference.

I'm going to give the same 2.0.3 build a go on some different hardware when
I get chance.

Chris.

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