Re: Serial console/remote install discussion

On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 09:19:17AM -0700, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
I'd like to open up a discussion regarding FreeBSD serial console and

the aspect of installation via serial console.

There seem to be quite a few surprises in regards to installing (or even
using!) FreeBSD this way. I thought I'd mention some of them, in hopes
that by bringing them to light we can work towards making the
installation process easier, or at least more headless-friendly.

1) Administrators are required to "build their own installation disks"
(the Handbook goes over this with regards to floppy disks) if they want
FreeBSD installs to support serial console. Based on what I've read,
the procedure is required because the stock installation disks lack a
/boot.config that contains -h.

Has anyone ever proposed including a /boot.config on all the
installation mediums that contains -P by default? I don't know how
reliable -P is, but I've used it for years on numerous servers (all
different hardware) without any issues; others may have different
experiences.

See also: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/58951

Which brings me to the next item...

2) FreeBSD's serial vs. VGA concept (keyword: versus) is disheartening.
The whole "one or the other" concept is unrealistic in this day and age,
and this was more or less admitted by the Dragonfly folks when they
re-wrote whatever code to get simultaneous dual console (VGA+serial)
working.

This seems to be wrong: FreeBSD has dual console support for quite long time.

Eugene Grosbein

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