Hi all. I need some advice on an issue that just cropped up. We have a Linux embedded image (current kernel is 2.6.31-based) that we are booting up on blade systems using PXE to obtain the kernel image, the kernel boot line parameters, and an initrd from a server. On these systems we REALLY need to be able to watch the console, even after deployment into the field (e.g., not just during development/internally). We currently run this image on various hardware platforms, one of which uses serial-over-LAN, where the console is connected to a dedicated vlan from the blade to the chassis management module, which you can ssh into and from there connect to the console on any blade in the chassis. The vlan configuration on these blades doesn't support any baud rate over 19200, so in order to get this working we use the PXE configuration file to add "console=ttyS1,19200" to the kernel boot line. Works great! Here's the problem. The vendor has released a new version of the blade hardware for this platform, and while the old hardware didn't support any baud rate above 19200 for serial-over-LAN, the new hardware doesn't support any baud rate at 19200 or below, so there's no single baud rate that will work for both types of blades. These blades are interchangeable in the chassis and since the current ones are end-of-life we have to start to support the new blade, and we have to support combinations of new and old blades in the same chassis (due to replacements). So I _have_ to find a way to get the console working in this configuration. Even if I lose the early boot messages but then managed to configure the console properly from userspace after the kernel booted, that would be less than ideal but at least it would be progress. Is there some way to do this? Is there some way in the kernel to handle this kind of situation? I've looked at setserial and it supports a baud_base parameter but that doesn't appear to be what I want (I tried it anyway: changing it didn't work, my console output was still screwed up). Trying to do something like creating customized PXE configs on the server based on the MAC addresses of the blades that are "new" (or old) would be an absolute nightmare as people swap blades between chassis, add new ones, etc. all the time. Please help me find a better way... :-( -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-embedded" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
