[Gllug] Hardware giveaway!

[Tethys]

--------

John Edwards writes:

>If you don't want the expensive or space of a CRT monitor, then
>for a basic console you can use a serial cable instead. Though
>there used to be a bug where disconnecting the serial cable caused
>a BREAK signal which stopped the OS and switched the machine into
>PROM mode (equivalent of the BIOS in a PC):

I'm not sure that's really a bug (at least not on Sun's part).
Sending a break *should* drop you to the PROM. Certain terminals
were buggy, in that they sent a break when power cycled or in some
cases, as they were being disconnected. In particular, Cisco's
terminal servers had this fault. Hilarity ensued at a previous
employer when 16 live servers connected to an AS2511-RJ all went
down simultaneously. Not. We ditched Cisco terminal servers very
soon afterwards, and switched to Cyclades instead, which were
generally much better all round.

Like Richard, I hate the fact that PCs don't have proper serial
consoles. The vendor recommended solution always seems to be KVM
over IP instead, which anyone that's tried it to a datacentre in
the Far East will know simply isn't a viable alternative. Plus
it doesn't work from my mobile phone. A serial console does. Which
means I can be out and about when on call, rather than tied to
my desktop or having to lug a laptop around.

Tet
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug