Re: consdev ucom0 ?

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> I wonder if it's somehow possible to use the consdev boot command to
>> direct the serial I/O to pass through a Belkin USB to RS-232 adapter
>> instead of a conventional com port.
> no there's no way to use this as a serial console.

Well, usually.  I don't know the hardware in question, but I know that
some machines have the ability to take USB devices and make them look
like the real thing ("legacy", they usually call them).  This is
commonest, in my experience, with keyboards, but it wouldn't surprise
me if some machines could do it with serial ports.

You quite possibly would have to teach the kernel to ignore the USB
hardware.  You might even have to tell your kernel to ignore all your
USB hardware, from the host bridges on down.  And, of course, it all
depends on the hardware and BIOS being prepared to set up such fakery
to begin with.

Yeah, it's a pain.  One of the prices of using "modern" hardware with
all its design botches...what, are my biases showing?

As another possible way to address the underlying desire, don't booters
and such have Ethernet code?  Might be able to do some kind of
console-over-Ethernet setup.  I know a lot of Ethernet chips can be
driven by very simple code if you don't care much about performance.

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