Re: [gentoo-server] Console access & auto ignore filesystem error at boot

[Andrew Fant]

--On Thursday, March 25, 2004 14:02:41 -0600 Sebastien Arnaud 
<sebastien@××××××××××××××××××.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On the same topic, does anybody know how to setup in Gentoo a console
> access through one of our serial COM ports ? I would like to be able to
> get access to the console of the Gentoo servers in case for some reason
> the server does not start properly and does not launch the SSH daemon for
> remote admin.

Sebastien,
   If you just want to have serial port 1 with a getty on it so that you 
can log in when the system has come up, you just need to add a line for to 
start agetty on tts/0 to /etc/inittab, like the ones for the virtual 
consoles.  You will want to add that device to /etc/securettys as well if 
you want root to be able to log on directly.

If you want to be able to hit control-d remotely during the boot process, 
I can only speak to doing it with lilo.   You will need to add a line like 
"serial=0,115200n8" to your lilo.conf, and add  console=tty0 
console=ttyS0,115200n8 (or something similar) to the append line of the 
appropriate stanza in the lilo.conf.  You will want to make sure that you 
have built your kernel with support for console on a serial console, as 
well.

The cadillac solution is to make sure you have a server with console 
redirection in bios, and activate it.  That's what I am using here, and I 
can control the entire boot process from the terminal server, including 
bios config changes and diagnostics.  Very nice feature.

(Note that these steps are cumulative.  activating console redirection 
won't make you magically get a login prompt on your terminal server when 
the system is booted)

If you don't have a terminal server yet, I can't say enough good things 
about the Cyclades ACS series.  They have worked great for me.

Hope This Helps,
	Andy