[OmniOS-discuss] OmniOS / SuperMicro motherboard and settings for IPMI SOL

[Paul Jochum]

On 11/11/2013 11:15 AM, Jim Klimov wrote:
> On 2013-11-11 16:11, Paul Jochum wrote:
>> Hi All:
>>
>>      Does anyone know the magic settings (either/both in the SuperMicro
>> BIOS or OmniOS), to get the SOL (serial over LAN) on the IPMI on SSH to
>> display the console?  I can see the BIOS boot messages through the
>> following:
>>
>> ssh <ipmi address of the IPMI>
>> cd /system1/sol1
>> start
>>
>> But, once I hit "GRUB loading stage 2", the window goes blank and I
>> can't see anything else.
>
> May I presume you have serial console configured in GRUB itself and
> passed to the kernel command-line? Or do you need to add something
> like the below snippets to menu.lst? Also make sure that the speed
> (default 9600, 115200, whatever) is matched in SOL/BIOS/GRUB/OS, or
> maybe is autodetected in SOL/BIOS side and does not matter.
>
>
> # Primary GRUB console is physical; allow sercon too
> # (must press a key there to get grub menu)
> serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1
> terminal --timeout=10 console serial
>
> title default_bootfs syscon
> findroot (pool_rpool,0,a)
> kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS
> module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive
>
> title default_bootfs sercon
> findroot (pool_rpool,0,a)
> kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS,console=ttya
> module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive
>
>
>
> Actually the "default" system (OS) console is not necessarily keyboard
> and screen - this depends on "eeprom" (/grub/solaris/bootenv.rc) lines,
> i.e. one can have this:
>
> setprop console 'ttya'
> #setprop console 'text'
> setprop ttyb-rts-dtr-off false
> setprop ttyb-ignore-cd true
> setprop ttya-rts-dtr-off false
> setprop ttya-ignore-cd true
> setprop ttyb-mode 9600,8,n,1,-
> setprop ttya-mode 9600,8,n,1,-
>
> For alternative serial speeds (115200, etc.) you may need to update
> /etc/ttydefs, adding the option to "console" and/or "contty" loops,
> beside changing the other locations.
>
> HTH,
> //Jim Klimov
>
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Hi Jim:

     Thank you for responding.  In playing with our system, I now can do 
the following:
1) on the SOL interface, I can see most of the POST messages
2) I see all of grub messages (and the menu)
3) Once OmniOS starts booting, I sometimes see about the first 30 
characters:
"SunOS Release 5.11 Version omn"
while the real console displays the full message and the login prompt.

Any suggestions on how to get the SOL to display the full boot message 
and give a login prompt?  Since it got so far, I am assuming that I am 
on the correct port, and the proper baud rate, etc.  I have been playing 
around with changing /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc and /etc/ttydefs, but 
neither seem to be helping.  I believe that the SuperMicro SOL is 
basically taking the true console port (not a tty port) and putting it 
on the LAN, and so changes to bootenv.rc and ttydefs do not affect it 
(but this is just my hypothesis right now, and would love to be proven 
wrong on it)

The changes I made are:

BIOS:
     (I believe I turned these all back to the default settings, but am 
listing them here for completeness)
Advanced -> Serial Port Console Redirection ->
     Com1 and Com2 Console Redirection are Disabled
     SOL Console Redirection  is Enabled
             Console Redirection Settings (for SOL)
                         Terminal Type = VT100+
                         Bits per second = 115200
                                 (I have tried different rates (like 
9600), but then I can't see the POST messages)
                         Redirection after BIOS POST = Always Enable


in OmniOS
/rpool/boot/grub
     Commented out the line "splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz"
     and changed timeout to 5
     otherwise, everything else is as default
                 (i.e. the serial and terminal lines are still commented 
out, and the kernel line is still the same:  "kernel$ 
/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS)

/boot/solaris/bootenv.rc
     (tried a lot of changes, but returned it to default since none seem 
to make a difference)

/etc/ttydefs
     (tried a lot of changes, but returned it to default since none seem 
to make a difference)