RE: Proper Break entry for Ctrl-Alt-Del

  There *are* a few BIOS makers who have incorporated
some console redirection to the console...but I cannot
name them today. (HP? Compaq? Award? Version(s)?)

  The main downside was when the BIOS handed over the
Power-On Self-Test to 'smart' drive and network adapters,
which would then write directly to the screen again,
versus reporting through the BIOS.

  I haven't heard of BIOS makers watching for BREAK when
they are in this console-redirection mode. It may not have
been intuitive, since most of these "Lights-Out Management"
BIOS hacks *ALL* seem to presume that you're attaching
a modem to the port (requiring DCD to be invoked, before
the port will talk/listen), so they may have actively
decided to IGNORE a BREAK signal on the data leads, so
that a modem reset wouldn't crash the box. (This is my
own supposition, based on limited experiences. I don't
have access to a PC with BIOS that supports this feature.)

  Finally, just a reminder about the PC Weasel card, for
managing PCs at that kind of level *without* special BIOS.
(http://www.realweasel.com/) While pricey, it lets you
use a serial console to fuss with BIOS settings, logically
'press the reset button', and will also capture the screen
output of most 'smart' controllers. If you haven't looked
into these cards, you should at least check out the website,
and try the demo. (I have no affiliation, but I like the
implementation! :-)

    -Z-    http://www.conserver.com/consoles/

-----Original Message-----
From: users-bounces@conserver.com [mailto:users-bounces@conserver.com]On
Behalf Of Hauke Fath
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 5:28 AM
To: nathan r. hruby
Cc: users@conserver.com
Subject: Re: Proper Break entry for Ctrl-Alt-Del

Am 22.03.2005 um 8:11 Uhr -0500 schrieb nathan r. hruby:
>This is a serial console, sadly, there is no kernel :)

Ah...

>I just unpacked a machine, hooked it up and discovered it has some ish
>with its drives.  So I'm hoping to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot it remotely
>a few times while I wander through the various BIOS bits for the RAID
>controller and junk.

Another WAG - can you set up ctrl-alt-del as a break sequence? 
[Looking through conserver.cf(5) myself - no, nothing obvious.]

And - since the peecee most likely maps serial i/o to a keyboard and 
MDA adapter - does its documentation say anything about how it maps 
ctrl-alt-del?

	hauke