On Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 04:26:01PM -0500, duncan wrote:
>On a related subject, I have been trying to set up a box that i can ssh
>to, that will then allow me to connect over serial to a boot console on
>several different machines. 
>
>I have a RocketPort PCI card from comtrol, and a dumb black box that
>connects to this card, and has 16 rj-45 ports on it.  I use that, and
>rj-45 to db-9 converters attatched to the serial port on box1, box2, box3,
>... box16 (all redhat6.2 and 7.0).  
>
>My objective is clear, my method is not clear (to me)

get the hardware setup, connect the PC serial ports to the rocket port "hub"
ssh to the machine with the rocketport card on it and run kermit on the tty

you can put commands in files like so
set line /dev/ttyR0
set carrier-watch off
connect

then you can run 
kermit <filename> and get serial access to the box connected to port (1) I
hate the way they're numbered.

You'll prolly have to configure the kernels on the machines to support console
over serial port support (under charachter devices), and setup lilo to puke
the stuff out the serial line.

append="console=ttyS0" in lilo.conf should do it if the cable is connected to
com1.

append="serial=ttyS0" if you wanna see the lilo prompt,  you will also need to
adjust the speed on the kermit session to match that of what you set in the
serial port too. you can do this in BIOS (I think) or in the above append line

append="serial=ttyS0,115200"

I can also offer you the pin-outs for the connectors if you need them, and you
use a normail CAT5 cable between the rocketport hub and the DB-9 -> RJ-45
converters.

>
>I need to be able to ssh to this PC with 16port black box that attatches
>to RocketPort and use minicom (or something similar) and get a conolse
>connection to the other boxes when something flakes out.  Buffering of the
>screen is nice too.  

We use this all the time (duh, kernel hacking)


>A while back, i got it setup so i could echo back and forth from one box
>to the other, and then i was able to direct the login prompt at the
>console over serail (at the price of not having the console be my
>monitor) but I wouldnt take anyting for input.  

not following you, it should be writeable as well as readable.


>Any ideas?

I have machines with magical, mystical BIOSes that allow me to get to them
over serial line. (ServerWorks mobo's have this)

>
>I believe that this shouldnt be difficlut, nor everly complex.  We are
>trying to implement this over a 5-10K box from clearview or someone like
>that.

I use a 386 :-)


>I have read the HOW-TO from LDP, and searched around for quite a bit on
>google and deja (at least when deja was deja and not google)

T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100

that's the line I've used to put a getty on it, but it has to be slightly
slower then I think. Better to just use it for output (especially when you get
several megs of kernel messages (gfs.o is over 10MB with all the debugging
stuff turned on)

>I think the core of my problem lays at the linux level, not the device.  I
>dont feel like i have the system set up to do console over serial port...

Actually your problem is probably pinouts on the cables if you do the stuff
above and still don't get it to go.


-- 
Ben Lutgens		cell: 612.670.4789
Sistina Software Inc.	work: 612.379.3951
Code Monkey Support (A.K.A. System Administrator)

"It's hard to believe that's the same frail woman who once sprained her wrist
from having too much dip on a cracker!" -- Frazier Crane
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