Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
2008-Feb-02 02:11 UTC
[Xen-users] Xen 3.2 Debian 2.6.18 on Dual Xeon with Remote Serial access - grub.conf config advice needed
hi there, long subject line i know but it has all the right buzzwords in it :) i have a debian/testing system which is, rather unusually, on a dual-xeon system where the _only_ access i have, in emergencies, is via a serial console. yes - the BIOS is actually over the serial console not the VGA screen. (for those people who know blackcatnetworks, it''s one of their leased servers) i could really do with some advice on how to configure grub correctly. what i have so far shows absolutely nothing on the serial console beyond loading the two modules and going "boot". then it goes silent, i can''t see the startup log messages, and i have to pray that i got everything right and sit uncomfortably for a couple of minutes, pinging the remote ip address. here''s what update-grub managed to generate: title Xen 3.2-1-i386 / Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/xen-3.2-1-i386.gz module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 root=/dev/md0 console=ttyS0,9600 ro console=tty0 module /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 savedefault boot yes, i know - the two console= lines are because (if you know debian you''ll appreciate this) the #kopt= line is this: # kopt=root=/dev/md0 console=ttyS0,9600 ro sooo, update-grub goes "oh look, xen! let''s append console=tty0 on the end of the kernel options"! duh. anyway, _after_ manually editing the grub config every time at startup, to remove one of the extra console= lines, i get a chance to bite my fingernails until ping happily shows up - over the public internet. i am not a happy bunny: i seriously need console access and can''t make head nor tail of the obtuse descriptions of xencons=tty etc. that i''m reading about on various HOWTOs and FAQs. some rather direct and simple instructions, from people who clearly know what they''re doing much better than i could achieve by randomly rebooting a server which is going live in a couple of days _and_ hosts some existing live web sites, would be greatly appreciated. l. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
2008-Feb-02 02:20 UTC
[Xen-users] Xen 3.2 Debian 2.6.18 on Dual Xeon with Remote Serial access - grub.conf config advice needed
hi there, long subject line i know but it has all the right buzzwords in it :) i have a debian/testing system which is, rather unusually, on a dual-xeon system where the _only_ access i have, in emergencies, is via a serial console. yes - the BIOS is actually over the serial console not the VGA screen. (for those people who know blackcatnetworks, it''s one of their leased servers) i could really do with some advice on how to configure grub correctly. what i have so far shows absolutely nothing on the serial console beyond loading the two modules and going "boot". then it goes silent, i can''t see the startup log messages, and i have to pray that i got everything right and sit uncomfortably for a couple of minutes, pinging the remote ip address. here''s what update-grub managed to generate: title Xen 3.2-1-i386 / Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/xen-3.2-1-i386.gz module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 root=/dev/md0 console=ttyS0,9600 ro console=tty0 module /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 savedefault boot yes, i know - the two console= lines are because (if you know debian you''ll appreciate this) the #kopt= line is this: # kopt=root=/dev/md0 console=ttyS0,9600 ro sooo, update-grub goes "oh look, xen! let''s append console=tty0 on the end of the kernel options"! duh. anyway, _after_ manually editing the grub config every time at startup, to remove one of the extra console= lines, i get a chance to bite my fingernails until ping happily shows up - over the public internet. i am not a happy bunny: i seriously need console access and can''t make head nor tail of the obtuse descriptions of xencons=tty etc. that i''m reading about on various HOWTOs and FAQs. some rather direct and simple instructions, from people who clearly know what they''re doing much better than i could achieve by randomly rebooting a server which is going live in a couple of days _and_ hosts some existing live web sites, would be greatly appreciated. l. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Andy Smith
2008-Feb-06 14:02 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Xen 3.2 Debian 2.6.18 on Dual Xeon with Remote Serial access - grub.conf config advice needed
Hi Luke, On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 09:20:48PM -0500, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:> hi there, long subject line i know but it has all the right buzzwords in it :) > > i have a debian/testing system which is, rather unusually, on a dual-xeon > system where the _only_ access i have, in emergencies, is via a serial > console. yes - the BIOS is actually over the serial console not the VGA screen. > (for those people who know blackcatnetworks, it''s one of their leased servers)I''m a former black cat colo customer myself. I used my own hardware though, so am not familiar with their leased servers.> i could really do with some advice on how to configure grub correctly. what i > have so far shows absolutely nothing on the serial console beyond loading > the two modules and going "boot". then it goes silent, i can''t see the startup > log messages, and i have to pray that i got everything right and sit > uncomfortably > for a couple of minutes, pinging the remote ip address.Here''s the relevant bits of what I use, it works for me on Debian Etch. It may not be the best or most correct way. Use at your own risk: serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1 terminal --timeout=10 serial console # kopt=root=/dev/sda3 ro # defoptions=console=tty0 console=ttyS0 # xenhopt=com1=9600,8n1 console=com1,vga dom0_mem=1024M # xenkopt=console=tty0 console=ttyS0 then update-grub creates correct entries for me, with output going to both serial and monitor. Note also that you can put your own custom entries in between these two lines: # Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST and update-grub will not mess with them. I''m assuming you have a getty listening on ttyS0 as well? (/etc/inittab) Cheers, Andy _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users