[syslinux] extlinux 6.03 IPMI SOL (serial-over-lan) console not responding to input

[Ady]

> On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 01:49:24PM -0400, Andrew J. Schorr via Syslinux wrote:
> > The good news is that it still has the same problem as the Fedora version.
> > If I attach a physical serial console, I am able to type at the boot 
> > prompt.  But when using the IPMI serial-over-lan console, all of my
> > input is ignored.  So the same problem exists in the official binaries.
> > 
> > I have seen this same behavior across three machines using two
> > different motherboards: Intel S5500WB and Intel S5520UR.  And Ferenc Wagner
> > says he has this problem with Fujitsu Primergy CX250 S2 servers.  So
> > there appears to be a bad interaction with the serial support and IPMI SOL.
> > This was all working fine in Fedora 19 extlinux 4.05.
> > 
> > Does anybody have any ideas on how to troubleshoot further?
> 
> Sorry for replying to my own post.  This behavior is very similar
> to what happens under extlinux 4.05 when no flowcontrol flags are
> specified.  When using IPMI SOL with 4.05, I found that I could not
> interact with extlinux until I added the 0x003 flowcontrol bits to the
> serial directive, like so:
>    serial 0 115200 0x003
> Is there any chance that the 6.03 version does not implement these flowcontrol
> bits properly?  That would explain the behavior that I've seen...
> 
> Thanks,
> Andy
 
First, you should add all the lib*.c32 files for BIOS (located under 
the BIOS subdir), so to avoid the error messages.

Then, just in case, have you tried changing:

 serial 0 115200 0x003 

with alternative values?

For instance:
 port is a number (0 =/dev/ttyS0 = COM1, etc.) or an I/O port address 
(e.g. 0x3F8).

Or trying a different speed, just for a test?

Or trying a different flowcontrol value for a test?

I am not saying it will certainly solve your situation (probably it 
won't), and a bug in Syslinux 6.03 is not at all discarded.

The other suggestion I can think of would be to search for a BIOS 
update.

I am aware that these are not the type of comments you would hope for.

Regards,
Ady.
 
> _______________________________________________
> Syslinux mailing list
> Submissions to Syslinux at zytor.com
> Unsubscribe or set options at:
> http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
>