Re: serial console install issues
On Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 11:51:57AM +1200, Richard Hector wrote:
> Hi all,
Hi Mailinglist,
> I'm commenting here partly because I don't know which bit of software is at
> fault for each problem ...
>
> I have a PCEngines APU4, which has a serial port and no video hardware.
>
> I'm using a USB-serial adapter, with a null-modem cable.
>
> I'm using a Buster netinst USB stick - 10.1 I think - according to the cdrom
> lines in sources.list
>
> My first issue was that xfce4-terminal (by default) traps F10, which I
> needed for the Coreboot/Seabios boot menu, but I've since discovered that's
> an option in the preferences. I got around that initially by using xterm.
>
> My first try was with minicom. It connected ok, but it appeared the arrow
> keys weren't working, and the line drawing characters weren't displaying
> correctly either.
>
> When I discovered screen acts as a serial terminal, that behaved rather
> better (colour, and nice line drawing characters), but still problems with
> arrows.
>
> Then finally, I can't remember how, I discovered that it didn't like
> displaying on a 24-line terminal, which most of the terminals I tried
> default to.
>
> With a 25-line terminal, it all seems useable - and Minicom mostly displays
> it ok too (not quite right; the blue box isn't quite drawn properly, and
> seems too low on the screen?
>
> It then took me some time to realise that I needed to both add
> console=ttyS0,115200n8 at the end of the kernel line, and apparently remove
> the 'vga=xxx' part earlier in the line. I guess it's not possible for
> SysLinux to detect that?
>
> Anyway, as I say I'm not sure whether the issues are in the terminal
> emulation (either the xterm or comms program), or in the menu system (is
> that SysLinux?) or somewhere else, or whether the mismatch in number of
> lines inevitably causes problems.
>
> I hope this isn't to vague :-)
It is a clear story of a struggle that has been won :-)
On how to prevent that more people solve a solved problem
was a websearch done
https://duckduckgo.com/q=debian+installer+serial+line
One of the first hits is
https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/amd64/ch05s03.en.html
which has a section called 'Boot console'. Rereading that section
again made we wonder what could be improved.
I'm asking Original Poster to elaborate what should be changed.
Regards
Geert Stappers
DD
--
Silence is hard to parse
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