[svlug] Sun v20z / v40z OS serial console

[Karsten M. Self]

I'm dealing with a few Sun "Sun Fire" v20z and v40z systems.  We're
trying to manage these over the serial interface.  By "manage", strong
preference is for BIOS, boot (GRUB), and OS (Linux) output to go to the
serial port.

The onboard service platform (SP) keeps getting in the way.  It is
enabled on the serial port by default, and doesn't appear to be
configurable to get out of the way, despite a number of settings which
would appear to do this:

  - BIOS console redirection.
  - Motherboard J19 jumper.
  - SP LCD panel configuration.
  - SP command line configuration.

Sun documentation (Server Arechitecture, User Guide, etc., from
http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/hardware/docs/Servers/Workgroup_Servers/Sun_Fire_V20z/index.html)
is remarkably opaque on this point.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <karsten at linuxmafia.com>        http://linuxmafia.com/~karsten
    Ceterum censeo, Caldera delenda est.