Subject: Re: ttys(5)
To: None <port-sparc@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-sparc
Date: 11/27/2001 11:07:44
> I want to attach a serial terminal to ttya that I can use as the
> console from time to time. [...]
> There are other times when I want to be able to attach a
> monitor/keyboard and use *that* as the "console".
> [...conflict over the "console" settings in ttys...]
The right fix to this, I believe, is to have something like
/dev/fbconsole and run getty on both ttya and fbconsole, but _not_ on
console. I have a fairly clear memory that some NetBSD rev on some
hardware had /dev/kd which was essentially this fbconsole thing; I
don't remember what NetBSD version or what port, though. I believe
that with the general tendency to move everything to wscons, you will
get /dev/ttyE0 as your fbconsole device and the problem will therefore
go away.
In the meantime, I have no good solution. I have fairly few machines
that flip between headed and headless, and I generally deal with them
by setting things by hand once logged in.
> And, since ttyb can't (?) serve as the console, there is no way to
> use it to solve the problem (??)
I think it can, for most machines. "setenv input-device ttyb" and
"setenv output-device ttyb" would be my guesses, but it depends on your
ROM rev. Check "printenv" output; the variable names are usually
pretty clear. (If your ROM rev is so old it doesn't have "printenv",
I'm not sure what to do. Sun-3s have a q command in the monitor and a
defined structure of values in NVRAM, but I don't know how much of that
is true of old SPARCs.)
/~\ The ASCII der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
X Against HTML mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B