Re: remote system administration - grub via serial cable?
On Mon, Dec 08, 2008 at 01:03:52AM +0200, Micha Feigin wrote:
> I'm trying to do some kernel development remotely which requires reboots and
> the occasional kernel panic on start which is very annoying since then I need to
> wait a few days until I get to the computer or someone knowledged enough is
> around it to restart it into a working configuration.
>
> Is there some way to control grub, see the startup text and reboot remotely in
> case of kernel panic such as through a serial cable (although I need to check
> if that motherboard actually has a serial port as these are hard to come by
> these days).
Yes, grub can use a serial console. See the grub manual for how to set
it up.
There's also the savedefault feature of grub so that if a kernel choice
doesn't start it will start a default kernel that does boot next time
(not sure on this since I've never needed this aspect).
There's also the panic= kernel command line so that after a panic, the
machine will reboot after a delay rather than just sit there waiting for
a power cycle.
I don't know about grub, but the kernel can use usb dongles as serial
ports/console.
Doug.
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