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Serial console on Ultra-5 not quite right
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bdstevens
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Joined: 11 Sep 2003
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:09 pm    Post subject: Serial console on Ultra-5 not quite right Reply with quote

I have installed gentoo on an Ultra-5, but I can't ge the serial console to behave the way I think it should. I'm very familiar with Sun hardware (10 years Solaris, several years at Sun) and linux (10 years various flavors, a year with Gentoo), and I've search all over the place for answers, but I haven't found one that fixed my problem. When installing via the serial port, all seems well, and after booting, all seems well, but duringbooting, all is not well :cry:

Usually during booting, Gentoo will print an informative line, with a bracketed message at the end of the line (usually "OK"). Mine seems to be printing the bracketed message over the beginning of the line. It's like there a terminal problem, but I can't figure out how to fix it. I've booted with "linux serial" and it seems not to change. I've tried tons of combination of "linux console=ttyS0", but every time I add "console=<blah>", I get the dreaded "disappearing console" (the system boots, but none of the messages appear).

The system works fine once it's up, but because I'm a perfectionist, I'd like to see the boot messages in all their proper glory. Does anyone have any ideas?

Following is a transcript of a boot:

Resetting ...

Sun Ultra 5/10 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 360MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.25, 256 MB (50 ns) memory installed, Serial #11907792.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:b5:b2:d0, Host ID: 80b5b2d0.



Rebooting with command: boot
Boot device: disk:a File and args:
SILO boot:

Remapping the kernel... done.
Booting Linux...
PROMLIB: Sun IEEE Boot Prom 3.25.1 2000/01/14 13:40
Linux version 2.4.21-sparc-r1 (root@gentoo) (gcc version egcs-2.92.11 19980921 (
gcc2 ss-980609 experimental)) #1 Wed Sep 10 17:25:24 MDT 2003
ARCH: SUN4U
Ethernet address: 08:00:20:b5:b2:d0
On node 0 totalpages: 32280
zone(0): 32658 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Found CPU 0 (node=f006cd5c,mid=0)
Found 1 CPU prom device tree node(s).
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda4
Calibrating delay loop... 719.25 BogoMIPS
Memory: 255144k available (1792k kernel code, 272k data, 152k init) [fffff800000
00000,000000001ff24000]
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 8192 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 65536 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 262144 bytes)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: Probing for controllers.
PCI: Found SABRE, main regs at 000001fe00000000, wsync at 000001fe00001c20
SABRE: Shared PCI config space at 000001fe01000000
SABRE: DVMA at c0000000 [20000000]
PCI-IRQ: Routing bus[ 3] slot[ 0] map[1] to INO[19]
PCI-IRQ: Routing bus[ 3] slot[ 4] map[1] to INO[18]
PCI0(PBMA): Bus running at 33MHz
PCI-IRQ: Routing bus[ 1] slot[ 1] map[0] to INO[21]
PCI-IRQ: Routing bus[ 1] slot[ 2] map[0] to INO[0f]
PCI-IRQ: Routing bus[ 1] slot[ 3] map[0] to INO[20]
PCI0(PBMB): Bus running at 33MHz
ebus0: [auxio] [power] [SUNW,pll] [se] [su] [su] [ecpp] [fdthree] [eeprom] [flas
hprom] [SUNW,CS4231]
PCIO serial driver version 1.54
su(mouse) at 0x1fff13062f8 (irq = 4,7ea) is a 16550A
Sun Mouse-Systems mouse driver version 1.00
su(kbd) at 0x1fff13083f8 (irq = 9,7e9) is a 16550A
keyboard: not present
SAB82532 serial driver version 1.65
ttyS00 at 0x1fff1400000 (irq = 12,7eb) is a SAB82532 V3.2
ttyS01 at 0x1fff1400040 (irq = 12,7eb) is a SAB82532 V3.2
Console: ttyS0 (SAB82532)
power: Control reg at 000001fff1724000 ... powerd running.
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
rtc_init: no PC rtc found
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a National Semiconductor PC87306
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
CMD646: IDE controller at PCI slot 01:03.0
CMD646: chipset revision 3
CMD646: chipset revision 0x03, MultiWord DMA Force Limited
CMD646: 100% native mode on irq 4,7e0
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00020-0x1fe02c00027, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00028-0x1fe02c0002f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
hda: ST38410A, ATA DISK drive
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
hdc: CRD-8322B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1fe02c00000-0x1fe02c00007,0x1fe02c0000a on irq 4,7e0
ide1 at 0x1fe02c00010-0x1fe02c00017,0x1fe02c0001a on irq 4,7e0 (shared with ide0
)
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 16841664 sectors (8623 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=16708/16/63, (U)DMA
hdc: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdc: ATAPI 32X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Partition check:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4 p8
LVM version 1.0.5+(22/07/2002)
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 16384)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,4)): ext2_read_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as
ext2

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
.g.ɽCC.devfs on /dev
Gentoo Linux; http://www.gentoo.org/
Copyright 2001-2002 Gentoo Technologies, Inc.; Distributed under the GPL

[ ok ]ing /proc...
[ ok ]ing devfsd...
[ ok ]ing tmpfs at /mnt/.init.d...
[ ok ]ng service dependencies...
*Adding Swap: 515576k swap-space (priority -1)
[ ok ]ing swap...
[ ok ]nting root filesystem read-only (if necessary)...
* Checking root filesystem...
fsck 1.32 (09-Nov-2002)
[ ok ]4: clean, 100892/497984 files, 273863/995274 blocks
[ ok ]nting root filesystem read/write...
[ ok ]ng hostname to gemini...
[ ok ]lating module dependencies...

* Checking all filesystems...
fsck 1.32 (09-Nov-2002)
[ ok ]1: clean, 23/3920 files, 4493/15624 blocks
[ ok ]ing local filesystems...
[ ok ]ating (possibly) more swap...
[ ok ]ng system clock to hardware clock [UTC]...
[ ok ]guring kernel parameters...
[ ok ]ing environment...
[ ok ]ing /var/lock, /var/run...
[ ok ]ing /tmp directory...
* Setting user font...
Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/1: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/2: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/3: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/4: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/5: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/6: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/7: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/8: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/9: Permission denied
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 61: /dev/vc/10: Permission denied
[ !! ]d to set user font

* Loading key mappings...
input in flex scanner failed
[ !! ] loading key mappings

[ ok ]ing lo up...
[ ok ]alizing random number generator...
+åÑ.É¥......±...±é...
[ ok ]ing network filesystems...
[ ok ]ing sshd...
[ ok ]ing syslog-ng...
[ ok ]ing vcron...
[ ok ]ing local...

gemini login:
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Blademan
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Joined: 05 Oct 2002
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are you having this issue with this box only with Gentoo linux? Does this happen in Solaris as well?
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This has been typical behavior for serial console boots. Lately the boot scripts seem to be getting for this.

Do you have this on ever line or just some (particularly ones wider than the term)?
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bdstevens
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This happens only with Gentoo Linux. Solaris (8) worked/displayed everything fine.
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bdstevens
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It appears to be happening on every line written by the startup script(s) - STDERR lines appear OK. I'm using minicom in an 80x24 XTerm w/vt100 emulation to hit the serial port.
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dougm
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 7:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bdstevens wrote:
It appears to be happening on every line written by the startup script(s) - STDERR lines appear OK. I'm using minicom in an 80x24 XTerm w/vt100 emulation to hit the serial port.

I bet you're using a 9-pin serial cable. A full serial port needs 10 wires for communication, and 9-pin null modem cables link two of the lines together. (I've made my own null-modem cables before, and run into this problem.) Because of this, hardware signalling doesn't work, and you're reduced to just hoping all goes for the best. (Alternatively, you can use software signalling, like XON/XOFF, but I don't know what support linux has for that.) Alternately, you can try slowing down the serial command, with a kernel paremter like: "console=ttyS00,9600" or "console=ttyS01,9600" depending on which serial port you're using...
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bdstevens
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, I'm using a 3 pin serial cable - Transmit, Receive, and Ground. I've done that successfully with Solaris/Sparc boxes and Cobalt/Redhat boxes, but it sounds like it only -almost- works in this particular situation. Maybe one of the days I'll try a "real" null modem cable and or software flow control to see if that fixes it...

Thanks for the input
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dougm
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 8:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bdstevens wrote:
Actually, I'm using a 3 pin serial cable - Transmit, Receive, and Ground. I've done that successfully with Solaris/Sparc boxes and Cobalt/Redhat boxes, but it sounds like it only -almost- works in this particular situation. Maybe one of the days I'll try a "real" null modem cable and or software flow control to see if that fixes it...

Thanks for the input

You mentioned above using the console=ttyS0 option, but the console ports (on an Ultra 5, at lleast) , are ttyS00 and ttyS01 (two zeros, or zero-one). Have you tried using those?
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bdstevens
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 8:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I tried all sorts of combinations of port names, boot params, etc. I found some displayed the exhibited behavior, and some didn't work at all, so I went back [I think] to the "default", which worked as well as anything...
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xming
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 9:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All gentoo/sparc that I have are like that, I don't care, IMO this is the problem with term emu, each [ok] gets printed at the begining of the line instead at the end (the cursor positioning is wrong).

I don't see a big deal fixing this, so never looked

xming
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