Re: serial console device, and installboot vs. /boot.cfg

[Steve Rikli <sr%genyosha.net@localhost>]

On Thu, Feb 08, 2024 at 11:34:58AM +0100, Martin Husemann wrote:
> You can use consdev in /boot.cfg and it works for me (but with a different
> syntax):
> ...
> For 10: there should be no relevant differences.

Indeed NetBSD 10.0 RC4 has the same good behavior as 9.3; again, for
serial console you need one of

  - installed serial bootstrap config
Or
  - consdev=com0[,speed] in /boot.cfg

but both are apparently not required. It also wasn't necessary to change
/etc/ttys, even with a different consdev speed from default 9600, e.g.

# cat /boot.cfg
consdev=com0,115200
menu=Boot normally:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot
menu=Boot single user:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot -s
menu=Drop to boot prompt:prompt
default=1
timeout=5
clear=1

# grep cons /etc/ttys
console	"/usr/libexec/getty Pc"		wsvt25	off secure
constty	"/usr/libexec/getty Pc"		wsvt25	on secure

Previously I'd used std.115200 rather than Pc, but the above works fine.

I have not added serial config to the bootstrap, it is unchanged from
what was setup during the NetBSD install with Pc keyboard+VGA. The only
change is in /boot.cfg, which works very well for me.

I experimented again with consdev=auto in boot.cfg but it still behaved
like consdev=com0 even with no serial cable connected to the PC COM
port; I'm still not sure how to make use of auto, but com0 is fine for
my purposes.

Thanks to everyone for the examples and pointers, I'm quite pleased with
the end result for my setup.

Finally, I wanted to say the BIOS Boot flag logo banner in 10 RC4 looks
sharp -- simple and clean, and I quite like it!

Cheers,
sr.