[OpenIndiana-discuss] OI without a console?

[Richard L. Hamilton]

Given motherboard serial ports (like on a desktop, but very few laptops anymore), can OpenIndiana handle a serial console? What about a serial console on a PCIe card, or worse, on a USB port?

Funny note there: at least with Sun/SPARC hardware, you need a null modem cable to connect a terminal, but there's a gotcha: turning off the terminal or disconnecting it will generate a hangup, which is equivalent to L1-A, i.e. break out of the OS and return to the OpenBoot prompt. One can resume the OS, but needs to leave the terminal connected and on. Even terminal concentrators or devices providing remote serial port access could have that effect if rebooted.

Someone now passed long ago invented a null-modem plug (allowing a more common straight-thru cable to be used) that in the housing connecting the ends, also had some circuitry so that if that plug was screwed to the system (but not to the cable attaching the terminal), one could freely disconnect the terminal cable without interrupting the OS. Unfortunately, that was not a commercial product; he made them for his employer for in-house use only. I don't know if he documented the design, and doubt I could find it even if he did. One can work around it with KEYBOARD_ABORT=alternate in /etc/default/kbd file, which sets carriage-return tilde CTRL-b as the abort sequence.

> On May 8, 2023, at 11:37, Stephan Althaus <Stephan.Althaus at Duedinghausen.eu> wrote:
> 
> On 5/8/23 17:31, Gary Mills wrote:
>> Is anybody running OI on a computer that does not have a console?
>> I have a system that I installed with the GUI image, and with an
>> HDMI console and USB keyboard and mouse.  Now I'd like to use this
>> system without all of them.
>> 
>> Can I just disconnect them?  Will OI boot fully without a console?
>> Can I attach a console later, if I happen to need it?
>> 
>> 
> Hello!
> 
> As I can tell from history, you should set the BIOS to ignore these errors on boot like "no keyboard attached". Try this with only the monitor attached, no keyboard/mouse..
> 
> I have a Backup server without keyboard/mouse/monitor attached that i power up from remote via IPMI,
> that boots into OI just perfextly.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Stephan
> 
> 
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