Re: Serial console install

From: Eric Anderson <anderson_at_centtech.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 06:50:44 -0500
Marian Hettwer wrote:
> On Do, 7.04.2005, 13:23, Eric Anderson sagte:
> 
>>Sławek Żak wrote:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I'd like to ask what's the reason behind requiring a keyboard during
>>>FreeBSD install. Headless configuration is the most common in
>>>datacenters and toying with KVM and VGA cable is often a no-no
>>>(distance in the issue my case).
>>>
>>>Therefore why don't we introduce a prompt in the CD loader saying:
>>>
>>>"Press any key to install from video console..."
>>>
>>>Now wait 30s. If no key is pressed boot with console=comconsole.
>>>
>>>It would make my life sooo much easier and won't confuse noobs too much.
>>
>>Maybe so, but then people who do have video consoles plugged in would have
>>to hit a key to keep going.
>>
> 
> True. But people with a Monitor and a Keyboard connected could hit Enter.
> People with a headless Server just don't have a possiblity to hit any key
> to initalize the installation the way they want.
> 
> Isn't it possible to send out the output of FreeBSD's bootloader to VGA
> and serial console ?
> This would be perfect. We could have a point in our bootmenu to hit a
> specific key for serial console install, or for VGA based install.
> But I believe for the time being it's not possible to have the same output
> on console and vga.
> 
> On the other hand, would it be possible to create a PXE Image with serial
> console enabled ?
> Usually if you have servers which are headless they are additionally
> pretty far away... Network Boot is the way to go :)
> 
> 
>>Why not just read this:
>>
>>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-advanced.html
>>
> 
> well, this is an option, but however, you have to change the floppies all
> the time. Floppies suck ;)

You must have missed the second link - it answers your questions completely.  You can also build your own images with whatever setup you'd like, and/or have that image used via PXE install.

Eric



-- 
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Eric Anderson        Sr. Systems Administrator        Centaur Technology
A lost ounce of gold may be found, a lost moment of time never.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Thu Apr 07 2005 - 09:51:20 UTC

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