[luau] Mid range board with console out

[Brian Chee]

There is a new "standard" out now on intel boards that is a move in the
right direction. Basically it's a nearly true serial console (I need to see
if there is an equivelent of a stop-A like on a sparc) that is presented on
an RJ-45. There is a jumper on the motherboard that changes the config to
one of two terminal server pin configurations (lantronix and cisco).

Gateway and MPC (micron PC) are both using it now, and of course if you
purchase one of the newer intel motherboards you also get this. I've only
tested with the lantronix SSH console server...but it works just fine.

Oh yeah....Lantronix makes a 1 port, 2 port, 8 port, 16 port, and 32port SSH
console server. Breaks out the ports with RJ-45's. Much less expensive than
the Cyclades version. Or just put an octopus serial board in a linux
box....but I'm not sure if the octopus board will actually be cheaper than
the lantronix unit....and 16port version is 1RU. (balanced RS-232
configuration, so longer runs possible) You can even ssh to a particular
port on the server and bypass the CLI and direct connect to the physical
port. It also handles both connect and disconnect scripts. For wintel boxes
you can run a virtual com port over the IP Network....so you could if you
wanted to, run 32 serial ports off a wintel box....haven't tried this under
linux yet, but should be doable on that too. Lantronix also makes a VERY
inexepensive OEM version that is the size of a small matchbox and is single
port.

/brian chee

University of Hawaii ICS Dept
Advanced Network Computing Lab
1680 East West Road, POST rm 311
Honolulu, HI  96822
808-956-5797 voice, 808-956-5175 fax

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vince Hoang" <luau at ml.altern8.net>
To: <luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: [luau] Mid range board with console out


> On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 08:16:18PM -1000, Dwight wrote:
> > Redirecting console to the serial port (via the linux kernel)
> > is covered in several internet articles:
>
> This is one of my long term gripes about x86 hardware: no true
> serial console.
>
> Intel boards that have EMP support have BIOS serial console
> redirection. It is still feels kludgey, however. Nothing compared
> to being able to send a break and restarting your server when the
> kernel panics.
>
> -Vince
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