Martin: There's more here than just serial console--at least in what I was suggesting. With the video disconnected, I get all the bios injformation from my DEC Alpha via my BNS on the serial port. I'm also able to change settings, at least using the socalled SRM consoleon the Aklpha. I think a good rule of thumb for finding what machines are likely to provide the fuctionality I speak of would be to consider machines which might be used in a cluster somewhere. In other words, it is not expected that each machine will have its own video display. Therefore, anyone, not just the blind user, will need some console access which is not based on a video display. This goes then for both the bios and an OS install. Any OS which is tailored to run on clustered machines may support serial console. Don't know that NT/2K does, though. I do believe what I describe was quite standard going back many years, for most systems until the days of DOS and Windows. On Sun, 14 Oct 2001, Martin G. McCormick wrote: > Some Suns go to the serial port if the system is started > up without the keyboard/mouse unit attached. I imagine some P.C. > displays can tell if the monitor is disconnected, but there is no > return signal for your average VGA-style monitor port so the > system doesn't know one way or the other whether the monitor is > on, off or connected. > > Also depending upon the hardware, you may get that > functionality if the video card is removed completely. Other > system boards won't work at all if you do that. > > You pays your money and takes your chances. > > Other than the fact that I wasted a lot of time I didn't > really have in trying to figure out how to make the serial > console work, I had a load of fun. > > Finally, if you happened to read my response in which I > mentioned the Braille and Speak, I wrote that before reading > Janina's message so that confirms what I suspected. > > Basically, any access device you want to use that looks > like a vt100 is fine. > > The FreeBSD boxes I worked on this last Summer are > replacements for our primary and secondary domain name servers, > the work station I am sending this email from, and yet another > domain name server for a department on our campus that wants as > fail-safe a dns system as possible. > > I definitely give FreeBSD high marks for accessibility so > long as you don't expect to find a screen reader right on the > system. As far as I know, there is none. It is the serial > console I really like and the security concern shown in the setup > and configuration options. > > Of course, once you have a FreeBSD box up and running, it > acts like Linux or any other UNIX box. You will like most of > what you find and probably find that a few minor things are > different from other UNIX systems you have used. That makes > FreeBSD no different in that respect from AIX or AT&T versus > BSD-style UNIX. It is like American English from different parts > of the country or from the UK. It's all English and one just has > to learn the idiosyncrasies of the particular system to get the > most good out of it. > > Janina Sajka writes: > >Martin: > > > >I don't know specifically about the IBM Netfinity, but many, if not most > >non-Intel computers will automatically use the first serial port for > >communications if you boot without a monitor connected. I have even used a > >Braille 'N Speak connected to my DEC Alpha this way. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper, Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp Learn how to make accessible software at http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp