Hello, I am using syslinux to boot a Soekris net4801 into LRP/Lince 1.2 linux. Net4801 has no video card - it has only a serial port. During bootstrap syslinux writes the text file syslinux.dpy to the serial port but it breaks the line every 15th character. I tried syslinux versions 1.66 and 2.11 with same results. In the Archives from June 3, 2002 , there is a message on this subject ("Message File to serial console"), H. Peter Anvin saying this bug has been corrected a long time ago. However, syslinux 2.11 is behaving the same way. Interesting enough, if I use 14hex to redirect the output to serial, I don't receive the contents of syslinux.dpy through the serial port. If I use 15hex (text + serial) I do get it but it is chopped each 15th character. Next surprise is that if I capture the serial console stream, the contents of syslinux.dpy is not captured but the rest is. I can see the chopped strings in the terminal emulation but they are not in the capture file. Am I doing something wrong or is net4801 handling video text stream differently or is it a bug in syslinux? Regards, Tom
tom.erjavec at iskratr.si wrote:> Hello, > > I am using syslinux to boot a Soekris net4801 into LRP/Lince 1.2 linux. Net4801 has > no video card - it has only a serial port. During bootstrap syslinux writes the text file > syslinux.dpy to the serial port but it breaks the line every 15th character. I tried > syslinux versions 1.66 and 2.11 with same results. > > In the Archives from June 3, 2002 , there is a message on this subject ("Message > File to serial console"), H. Peter Anvin saying this bug has been corrected a long > time ago. However, syslinux 2.11 is behaving the same way. Interesting enough, if I > use 14hex to redirect the output to serial, I don't receive the contents of syslinux.dpy > through the serial port. If I use 15hex (text + serial) I do get it but it is chopped each > 15th character. Next surprise is that if I capture the serial console stream, the > contents of syslinux.dpy is not captured but the rest is. I can see the chopped strings > in the terminal emulation but they are not in the capture file. > > Am I doing something wrong or is net4801 handling video text stream differently or > is it a bug in syslinux? >Is this syslinux, pxelinux or isolinux? -hpa
H. Peter Anvin wrote:> >> Am I doing something wrong or is net4801 handling video text stream >> differently or is it a bug in syslinux?> Also, if the net4801 is doing some kind of text console emulation on the serial port, it could be a problem. -hpa
> -----Original Message----- > From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] > Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 12:34 AM > To: H. Peter Anvin > Cc: tom.erjavec at iskratr.si; syslinux at zytor.com > Subject: Re: [syslinux] Message File to serial console > > H. Peter Anvin wrote: > > > >> Am I doing something wrong or is net4801 handling video > text stream > >> differently or is it a bug in syslinux? > > > > Also, if the net4801 is doing some kind of text console > emulation on the > serial port, it could be a problem. > > -hpaAs a side note, my PcEngines system also users the serial port for console, and I don't do anything special other from defining serial 0 38400 in syslinux.cfg. I use Bering-uClibc router software. Luis Correia Bering uClibc Team Member PGP Fingerprint: BC44 D7DA 5A17 F92A CA21 9ABE DFF0 3540 2322 21F6 Key Server: http://pgp.mit.edu
tom.erjavec at iskratr.si wrote:> > Yes, indeed, could be, but I don't know if syslinux is using the below mentioned > BIOS resources directly. The manual of net4801 says: ... > ------------------------ > The net4801 ... uses COM1 serial port for the primary console instead. The netBIOS > also has an emulation of int 10 video system calls and int 16 keyboard system calls, > making it possible to run old real mode programs that expect video and keyboard > services. This is mostly useful for running MS-DOS, and is limited to software using > BIOS calls only. > ------------------------OK, so you should *not* be specifying SERIAL in syslinux.cfg; it will conflict with the above emulation. If you're seeing the "thin strip" effect it's because the INT 10h emulation is buggy and not setting up some of the values in BIOS memory. -hpa