Specifications

©
2002, David K. Z. Harris
50
Pg. 50
© 2002
David K. Z. Harris
Adding Consoles to PCs
Ø Normally, this wouldn’t work…
Ø Some vendors add BIOS support
² Compaq, Network Engines
Ø Other vendors add optional cards
² Hewlett-Packard
Ø You can add a third-party card
² PC-Weasel (EISA and PCI versions)
Ø Rackable Systems’ “Phantom”
Traditionally, the PC architecture has not lent itself to using the COM ports as
serial consoles, they way that UNIX machines have.
Even if you are running a UNIX OS on a PC, you have normally needed to
wait until the OS is running before the serial console starts passing traffic.
In recent years, some larger vendors have been adding some console capability
in the BIOS. Most often, this is basically just redirecting the Power-On Self
Test (POST) output to a serial port, and then, only if it thinks your MODEM is
on-line!
On some Intel motherboards (SE7500cw2 series boards, some SCB2 as well)
have a quirk where “hardware handshake = none” really means “you shouldn’t
see them”, and if you attach a serial cable that asserts hardware signals, the
system won’t boot. (Disconnect cable, fix setting (or modify cable), and then
reconnect cable.)
There have also been attempts to use add-in cards to add another path for
managing the basic operations of the servers through a serial console port
(instead of a built-in COM port.)
The PC Weasel add-in card is currently available in EISA and PCI, but it
appears to the PC as a Hercules monochrome or VGA display card, but it
allows you to control the BIOS settings, and redirects all of the monitor output
up to the GUI activation, as well as providing some control over remote
rebooting. (http://www.realweasel.com/)