Rich Teer wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Mr Rob Shepherd wrote:
>
>
>>Can these be used on, say an Ultra 20 (which has no serial port)
>>to get the console?
>
>
> If you mean in the same way that one can attach a serial console to
> a SPARC machine, then no, I don't think you can do this.

Yes this is what I mean.

But you
> CAN use a USB -> serial adapter to connect to the serial console on
> another machine. I quite frequently do this using my Ferrari 3400
> as a serial console for various machines.
>
> That is,
>
> Ferrari USB -> Digi Edgeport 1 converter -> TTY A on some SPARC machine
>
> I've not tried the same set up on my Ultra 20, but I don't see why it
> wouldn't work.
>
> HTH,
>

Cheers.

Rob

Apologies, This should belong in c.s.s.hardware. Follow-ups set.

Mr R G Shepherd wrote:
> Rich Teer wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Mr Rob Shepherd wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Can these be used on, say an Ultra 20 (which has no serial port) to
>>> get the console?
>>
>>
>>
>> If you mean in the same way that one can attach a serial console to
>> a SPARC machine, then no, I don't think you can do this.
>
>
> Yes this is what I mean.

You mentioned in your original post:

"I notice in the OpenSolaris code that there's drivers
for a couple of usb-to-serial adapters."

So where could the drivers be loaded from for this USB-> serial device?
Clearly that is impossible.

--
Dave K

http://www.southminster-branch-line.org.uk/

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually. The month is
always written in 3 letters (e.g. Jan, not January etc)

Dave (from the UK) wrote:
> Mr R G Shepherd wrote:
>
>> Rich Teer wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Mr Rob Shepherd wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Can these be used on, say an Ultra 20 (which has no serial port) to
>>>> get the console?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you mean in the same way that one can attach a serial console to
>>> a SPARC machine, then no, I don't think you can do this.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes this is what I mean.
>
>
> You mentioned in your original post:
>
> "I notice in the OpenSolaris code that there's drivers
> for a couple of usb-to-serial adapters."
>
> So where could the drivers be loaded from for this USB-> serial device?
> Clearly that is impossible.

I don't understand.

drivers are loaded from the filesystem.

Oh I guess you mean console like you would get from OBP. Well there's no such
thing in x86 but you can still get a console from /dev/term/a

I thought maybe you can do some such with usb-serial port. worth a try.

Rob

>

Mr R G Shepherd wrote:
> Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>
>> Mr R G Shepherd wrote:
>>
>>> Rich Teer wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Mr Rob Shepherd wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Can these be used on, say an Ultra 20 (which has no serial port) to
>>>>> get the console?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> If you mean in the same way that one can attach a serial console to
>>>> a SPARC machine, then no, I don't think you can do this.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes this is what I mean.
>>
>>
>>
>> You mentioned in your original post:
>>
>> "I notice in the OpenSolaris code that there's drivers
>> for a couple of usb-to-serial adapters."
>>
>> So where could the drivers be loaded from for this USB-> serial
>> device? Clearly that is impossible.
>
>
> I don't understand.
>
> drivers are loaded from the filesystem.
>
> Oh I guess you mean console like you would get from OBP. Well there's no
> such thing in x86 but you can still get a console from /dev/term/a
>
> I thought maybe you can do some such with usb-serial port. worth a try.
>
> Rob
>
>>

When Rich Teer said:

"If you mean in the same way that one can attach a serial console to a
SPARC machine, then no, I don't think you can do this."

and you said

"Yes this is what I mean."

then I *did* think you were meaning at that sort of level, where perhaps
you can select the disk a machine boots from, change the bios values etc.

That was what I thought you were meaning - perhaps Rich did too, but I
can't speak for him.

My point was obviously that you can't do that sort of thing, since there
would be no operating system to load the drivers from.

A mis-understanding I think.
--
Dave K

http://www.southminster-branch-line.org.uk/

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually. The month is
always written in 3 letters (e.g. Jan, not January etc)