[syslinux] Message File to serial console

[tom.erjavec at iskratr.si]

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