[Summary] keeping serial console open on Sun Blade 100 even with keyboard & mouse attached

One reply - from Casper Dik

# eeprom output-device=ttya
# eeprom input-device=ttya

Based on his information and a bit more searching, I found that this 
stuff is documented in the Open Boot Command Reference Manual --

docs.sun.com
   product categories
     solaris on sun hardware
       solaris 9 on sun hardware documentation set
         openboot 2.x command reference manual
         openboot 2.x quick reference
         openboot 3.x command reference manual
         openboot 3.x quick reference


Anyway, it worked, but I'm still not quite where I want to be.

I connected remotely through an ssh session and su'd to root. The eeprom 
commands can be issued without being at the ok prompt. Then I opened up 
another terminal session on my Mac, ran kermit and opened the serial 
port to the Sun Blade (I already had the cable in place), went back to 
the ssh session, and issued a reboot.

The video monitor on the Sun Blade did not initially come on. The 
openboot output came through the serial port to my Mac desktop. At the 
end of the openboot, when it said it was initiating the desktop login on 
display :0, the video monitor on the Sun Blade came on and showed the 
graphical login. I logged in there and still had my serial connection to 
my Mac desktop. I opened a "console" window in the CDE environment on 
the Sun Blade, came back to my Mac desktop, ssh'd to the Sun Blade, and 
purposely typed a bad password into an su. I got the console error 
message on my serial connection, but not on the console window on the 
video monitor on the Sun Blade itself.

So, it works. But the output is truly re-routed to ttya and not tee'd to 
the console window on the vga port. I can do something like 'tail -f 
/var/adm/messages' in the console window on the Sun Blade, but that 
won't catch everything. I could work on that; but, during the bootup 
process, you won't see anything unless you have something connected to 
the serial port watching.



---------------

Chris Hoogendyk

-
    O__  ---- Systems Administrator
   c/ /'_ --- Biology Department
  (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst

<hoogendyk@bio.umass.edu>

---------------




Chris Hoogendyk wrote:
> keeping serial console open on Sun Blade 100 even with keyboard & mouse 
> attached
> 
> ----
> 
> I'm configuring a Sun Blade 100 to be a minor server. Took me a while to 
> discover that the serial console is deactivated if the system is booted 
> with a keyboard and mouse attached. It then re-routes all console output 
> to the vga port.
> 
> Does anyone know if there is a way to keep the serial console port even 
> when the Sun Blade is booted with the keyboard and mouse attached? 
> Setting a boot prom variable or something? Seems like it could at least 
> tee the output or something. That way, I would have the serial console 
> as an emergency fallback for remote management & stuff.
> 
> TIA
> 
> 
> ---------------
> 
> Chris Hoogendyk
> 
> -
>    O__  ---- Systems Administrator
>   c/ /'_ --- Biology Department
>  (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
> ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
> 
> <hoogendyk@bio.umass.edu>
> 
> ---------------
> _______________________________________________
> sunmanagers mailing list
> sunmanagers@sunmanagers.org
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