[lug] Help using Serial Console

[George Sexton]

Thanks. I'm not using DSView. I bought the CPS-1610 after-market on EBay 
and it didn't come with the software or cables. After looking it over, I 
don't think that the slight benefit it would give would justify the pain.

 From reading the manual for DSView, it appears that if I use their SSH 
client, they would support two different terminal sizes, 80*24, and 
48*132. I don't want to go through the pain of installing DSView on a 
server, and just for that feature.

I did find the stty command that lets me force the columns and rows to 
the right value. When I use that command to set the values, then 
programs like vi, yast, and mc all work as expected. So, I guess what 
I'll do is create a custom "/etc/issue" file for that tty and list the 
commands to reset the console size.

Next year, I buy an IP based KVM....

John Dollison wrote:
> How are the CPS ports configured?  The manual 
> (http://www.avocent.com/web/en.nsf/Content/Manuals) says that each port 
> can have its own CLI and TYPE settings, etc. (the default is ASCII, but 
> perhaps someone changed it to VT52 or some other odd setting; see Table 
> 5.11).
> 
> 80 columns X 24 lines was standard for most old video terminals 
> (http://vt100.net/), and is a selectable option within the CPS, which 
> gives me further reason to suspect the settings within the CPS itself, 
> and not your terminal settings.
>  
> The DSView 3 manual (also on the Avocent website) may provide further 
> insights.  I noticed that it defaults to 80x24 also.
>  
> Finally, the Avocent Knowledgebase may have answers (under Legacy 
> Support), but I was having trouble accessing it.
> --
> *John Dollison*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>  > Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:17:55 -0600
>  > From: gsexton at mhsoftware.com
>  > To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
>  > Subject: [lug] Help using Serial Console
>  >
>  > I'm having some problems using a serial console, and wondered if anyone
>  > could give me some pointers. I've looked through the various HOWTO
>  > documents for serial consoles, and text consoles and I'm just not seeing
>  > what I need.
>  >
>  > I've got 3 computers, and a router in a co-location facility, and I want
>  > to use the console server so I can do things like an fsck remotely. I've
>  > got an Avocent CPS1610 Console server connected to a machine running
>  > SUSE 10.2. I can see the machine POST, access setup, etc. I've got grub
>  > working on the serial port, and I can see the the serial console during
>  > machine boot.
>  >
>  > I can also login using the serial port console. My "agetty" line from
>  > inittab is:
>  >
>  > S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -h -L 38400 ttyS0 xterm
>  >
>  > I'm using OpenSSH from another SUSE Linux 10.2 box to log in. $TERM on
>  > the client shows "xterm".
>  >
>  > The problem I'm having is that the terminal behavior is erratic. I've
>  > tried specifying vt102, (nothing), and xterm on the agetty line. So far,
>  > xterm works the best but it still has problems. Some issues are:
>  >
>  > 1) # Columns seems fixed at 80, and not the width of the console window.
>  > 2) If I pull up VI, and the editor only gives me 24 lines of display.
>  > When I exit VI, and run a command that generates output, the lines of
>  > data scroll through the bottom ONE line of the console, rather than the
>  > whole console being refreshed as lines of data are scrolled up. Other
>  > programs like man, mc, and yast cause the same issue.
>  >
>  > If I run "reset" after this problem, things are set back to more or less
>  > normal.
>  >
>  > I'm using Konsole, but I've tried xterm as well. If I use putty, then I
>  > don't have to run RESET after using mc, man, etc, but they still only
>  > display in 80*24.
>  >
>  > I've had pretty much the same kinds of issues using MINICOM as well.
>  > With minicom, or ssh and VT102, the terminal is limited to 80*24 unless
>  > I resize the window. If I resize the window, then the number of lines is
>  > used. "reset" has no effect with minicom.
>  >
>  > If anyone could give me some tips on improving this, I would REALLY
>  > appreciate it.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > --
>  > George Sexton
>  > MH Software, Inc.
>  > Voice: +1 303 438 9585
>  > URL: http://www.mhsoftware.com/
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> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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-- 
George Sexton
MH Software, Inc.
Voice: +1 303 438 9585
URL:   http://www.mhsoftware.com/