Re: Fixing the missing serial console after installation issue
On 09/30/2017 10:37 PM, Frank Scheiner wrote:
>> Yes, I'm aware of that and that's what people usually use to enable the serial
>> console post installation. However, it's most likely not what we would want to
>> use as adding it to the kernel command line assumes that you know what type
>> of bootloader is being used and you would have to add case-matching for the
>> various bootloader types.
>
> But how does the kernel then know which serial device to use as console if it's not selected via the kernel's command line?
We know the serial console during installation and can pass this information
to systemd. The kernel will use the firmware-provided console until systemd
takes over during boot. The first kernel messages you are seeing are always
printed using the firmware and not drivers in the kernel.
Again, please note that this is how the installation images set up the serial
console in the past. I merely updated the code to be able to set up the serial
console for systemd systems as well. Neither for SysVInit nor for Upstart is
there any code to pass anything on the kernel command line.
> [1] mentions that the parameters (baud rate, etc.) for the getty tool - agetty in this case - can be modified in the system unit:
>
> ```
> [...]
> # cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/serial-getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/serial-getty@ttyS2.service
> # vi /etc/systemd/system/serial-getty@ttyS2.service
> .... now make your changes to the agetty command line ...
> # ln -s /etc/systemd/system/serial-getty@ttyS2.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/
> # systemctl daemon-reload
> # systemctl start serial-getty@ttyS2.service
> [...]
> ```
>
> Isn't that what you're looking for?
>
> UPDATE: Just saw that you solved it, but the info above might be still useful.
We might not need to adjust the baud rate as systemd calls agetty with:
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --keep-baud 115200,38400,9600 %I $TERM
and from the agetty manpage:
baud_rate,...
A comma-separated list of one or more baud rates. Each time agetty receives a BREAK character
it advances through the list, which is treated as if it were circular.
So, I guess this is fine as is. If some particular hardware needs adjustment, we
can make such adjustments later.
>>> Or does systemd not enable a serial console for the mentioned users despite
>>> using a serial console configuration in the kernel command line?
>>
>> What users? As you have explained yourself, systemd recognizes the console=$dev
>> setting from the kernel command line and uses that to spawn a getty on this
>> particular console.
>
> Yes, sure, but I didn't know if what I proposed and what worked in the past also
> worked for the mentioned users, i.e. these users:
>
> On 09/30/2017 10:54 AM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
>> Some users of Linux on sparc64 have noticed that the serial console is not working
>> directly after installation.
It worked until Wheezy because it still used SysVInit as the default init system for
which the code to set up the serial console was already in place. It was just missing
for systemd which is why it didn't work with the newer sparc64 images anymore. This
has now been fixed.
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
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