Hello,
Re: "Green"'s request.
It was my impression (and, based on other responses, that of other list
members also), that "Green" was concerned with use of a serial console
only once the kernel has booted (note reference to "login"). The issue of
BIOS serial console support is not really apropos to that limited case, as
the kernel (and indeed the most common boot loaders) provide the serial
support. WRT to the issue of messages appearing on console standard output
vs being seen using /bin/dmesg, I believe that, if you check, you will
find that boot messages appearing on console std. output are still
available via dmesg. Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you were saying,
however. I think we are all in agreement regarding the execution sequence
leading to the login prompts.
<RantMode>
I am a member of this list (LinuxEmbeddedMailList) for a number of
reasons; certainly I learn from other list members, but I also participate
in the hope that we all can promote further penetration of linux into the
embedded space, especially by those developers moving from a different OS
environment. The logical consequence of this, however, is that we see a
larger number of developers with only minimal prior *nix experience - the
"newbies" if you will. Consequently, yes ... we see more questions that we
may consider "intuitively obvious", but are so only because we have
already passed through the "newbie" stage. To me, each newcomer is a
"win" over some alternative platform. Therefore I believe that we should
show some understanding and patience: answer the "newbie" question of you
like, but a null response is preferable to a sarcastic one.
</RantMode>
--- Sorry for the rant - I don't mean to start a flame war.
Thanks
George Fouse
On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Jim Dennis wrote:
> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 19:57:38 -0700
> From: Jim Dennis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: LinuxKernelMailList <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> MipsMailList <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> LinuxEmbeddedMailList <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Serial Console!!
>
>
> Apparently "Green" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > I want to login to my MIPS box through serial port.
> > I execute 'make menuconfig' and select the 'serial console'.
> > But I can't see the login prompt in my window(I use netterm).
>
> > May I ask how serial console work?
> > Or I forget something?
>
> > P.S I skip /sbin/init program.
>
> In order for you to have full serial console port you
> must do more than simply enable the option in your kernel.
>
> Your BIOS/firmware should have serial console support of
> its own (most PCs don't, most other systems, even most
> PowerPC based Macs and workstations do, in the form of
> OpenFirmware --- formerly known as Sun's FCODE).
>
> Your MIPS box might have a firmware with serial console
> support, or it might not.
>
> That should allow you to access any pre-boot configuration
> options or diagnostics (including providing some mechanism
> to reset the NVRAM and to set the boot device or sequence)
>
> Your bootloader would have to support serial console
> to allow you to select which kernel you want to load
> and/or to pass kernel command line options and set
> initial environment variable/value pairs (a feature
> that seems unique to Linux).
>
> Of course, the Linux kernel support must be enabled,
> though that *only* applies to whether the kernel messages
> are copied to that device. If you would see it from
> dmesg, then it won't get copied to the console.
>
> To enable logins on a serial device you must spawn
> some form of getty process (normally done by init). That
> will listen for connections (normallly by taking login names)
> and exec() your login program (usually with the login name passed
> on its argument list).
>
> Since you specify that you're not running init, it's obvious
> why you can't "login."
>
> So, please tell me that you didn't actually think that
> logins and shells were handled directly by UNIX and Linux
> kernels!
>
>
> --
> Jim Dennis
> Software Analyst
> Axis Personal Trainers http://www.axispt.com
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> with the command "unsubscribe linux-embedded" in the message body.
> For more information, see <http://waste.org/mail/linux-embedded>.
>
--
George Fouse, President <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Quantum Technology Associates
www.quantumtek.net
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