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Re: Oldworld Serial Console




On Thursday, September 23, 2004, at 08:17 PM, Russell Hires wrote:

Hello all...I've got a Beige G3/266 w/ voodoo3 card, that doesn't give
console output in 2.6.x kernels. So...I want to do a serial console to
some other machine. I'm hoping there is some way to do this with BootX
and either my printer port and printer cable to another mac running
linux, or using some store bought cable that goes from my printer port
to rs232 to a x86 pc running linux.

Has anyone done this? And if so, how? I'm running sarge, BTW...

TIA!

Russell

I've got two Macs connected with a null-modem cable. Mini-DIN-8 null modem cables are hard to find. Try Belkin, they make cables to order. I borrowed mine from a friend who is a Mac guru. If you want to use an x86 box for the "receiving" end, you will need a mini-DIN-8 (Mac) plug on one end, and a 9-pin-RS232 (PC) plug on the other end. You can probably get away with having only 3 wires (transmit data, receive data, and ground) actually connected.

By the way, the Mac's Open Firmware serial console is on the "modem" port, not the "printer" port of the mac.

I run MacOS-9 and MacKermit (download it from <http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/>) on the "receiving" end. I've been trying to use this set up to get Open Firmware, PowerPC boot floppies, and Linux serial console to play nice together. I've been hampered by the fact that the boot floppies have no way to specify kernel boot-time parameters (such as "console=ttyS0").

Your idea of using BootX (which *does* allow setting boot-time kernel parameters) is a good one. Certainly worth a try!

It won't solve my problem, because I'm trying to use Open Firmware and the Linux serial console to debug the floppy boot process, but it might work for you.

Let me know how it goes...


Rick

PS: Have you tried replacing your voodoo3 card with something that is less sophisticated but better supported? Is there anyone on this list who can recommend a good one?



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