14 Dec
2001
14 Dec
'01
11:04 p.m.
On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote:
All the kernel needs is serial and serial console support, which is
the default in all the distros I play in. You just have to know the
boottime parameters. But, again, a lot of desktop BIOS's won't POST at
all without a graphics card installed. And most folk who know how to
patch a BIOS aren't running PCs.
Interesting fact: RedHat now accomodates a serial-console install, but
even done like that, the installed system boots looking for a VGA
console. You have to hand-edit the boot configuration after the install,
before you reboot.
Doc
I believe Linux will now run with a serial terminal.
NetBSD certainly
does.
AFAIK, Linux has always run with just a serial terminal. It's only
lately (~18 months, I think) that you could really install it that way
Thirdly, is
there any good reason why you can't use a serial terminal
linked to an RS232 port any more? In which case the PC wouldn't need a
video card at all, unless it needs one to pass the POST (and you don't
know how to patch the bios to get round it).
This should work just fine. You just have to compile the kernel with the
necessary options.