[olug] My console has fallen and it can't get up

[Dave Burchell]

dbw says:

> I want to take up Phil Brutsche on his suggestion to put a getty 
> on one of the machines serial ports.  I do not want to run ssh or 
> any remote login services for security reasons, but accessing the 
> machine via the serial port would be a great solution.

> Could someone please offer me some information or resource on how 
> to accomplish this?  I am guessing that using minicom on another 
> machine I would be able to access a login prompt of the afflicted 
> machine via the serial port.

> -Derek

Basically, you need to go to /etc/inittab and uncomment the line under

# Example how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal)

to read something like

T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 9600 vt100

The values of the character after the "T" and the "ttyS?" string should
reflect your serial port.  For example, "T1" and "ttyS1" would
generally mean your second serial port (or "COM2" as the DOS people
might say).

Note also that any other device that attempts to use the serial port
could be a problem, e.g., your Palm platform syncing cradle probably
won't work right if you have set up the serial port it is on to host a
terminal as well.

The terminal you hook to the serial port could be an actual terminal (like
a Wyse) or a computer acting as a terminal (like another Linux box with
minicom running).

I've done this a few times, so if you get stuck let me know.

-- 
Dave Burchell                                          40.49'N, 96.41'W
Free your mind and your software will follow.              402-467-1619
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                  burchell at acm.org     

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