Re: netboot services, Soekris 4801

["Jonas Sundström" <jonas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon <dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 ...
>     I think the CD may not be running a getty on the serial console.  
> That
>     would be an oversight on our part.  If the console is going to 
> the
>     serial port we should run a getty on it too.  It was originally 
> removed
>     because it was blowing up machines that didn't have serial ports.

Thinking out loud..

So, to have a serial port tty on the netboot target, you
currently get it also on the the machine serving the files,
which means you need a third machine hooked up to the
serial port of the netboot target, since the netboot server's
serial port is already occupied (by the getty).

Much like I tried to do it:

1. PC, live CD with netboot services
2. Soekris - headless, serial only, flash disk
3. PC, with a serial cable to the Soekris

Would it be possible to have the netboot target be
served another set of config files, 
( /etc, /etc.hdd, /etc.netboot )
to let the netboot target have a getty on the serial port?

My dream scenario would be:
- cutting out the 3'rd box
- serial cable between netboot server and target
- LiveCD-provided terminal mode for interacting 
  with the target Installer. 

I suppose if you're crazy enough to get headless hardware
you're supposed to know your way around all this, but it's 
still be a useful tool.

I suppose someone's bound to want to boot the Live CD 
-on- the actual headless hardware, and possibly have a
getty on the serial port.. (if they prefer serial over http)
and that would clash with my dream scenario use case.

Reminds me: I've not yet tried to access the target 
Installer via the http interface.

>     You should be able to boot into single-user mode, but getting the
>     environment working is another matter.  You could try manually 
> mounting
>     /etc, modifying /etc/ttys, enabling the entry for ttyd0, and then
>     'exit'ing to have it finish booting.

The "DragonFly menu" is a part of the boot where I can't see much
of what's happening, but I can probably get into single user mode
by pressing the right key when it looks about right. I probably 
wouldn't know my way around single user mode,  though, 
being as new as I am to BSD.

/Jonas Sundström.                      www.kirilla.com