Linux Console

This is how to configure the serial port in Linux to act as a Console port. You may need it if you have multiple PC's and you don't want to get a seperate Keyboard, and Mouse for each of them and also you don't have money to buy a KVM.

1. In the file “/etc/inittab” add the following line:
• S0:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty –L –f /etc/issueserial 9600 ttyS0 vt100
• Issueserial: this is the file where you write your custom greeting message
• 9600: Baud rate
• ttyS0: COM-1, you may use ttyS1 for COM-2
2. Then type the following command to activate the new settings “init q"
3. In order to allow users to connect as root add the following to “/etc/securetty” ttyS0, or ttyS1
4. [Optional] To redirect the console output to your serial port add the following to “/etc/grub.conf” Kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.9 ro root=LABEL=/ console=ttyS1,9600, The console redirection may cause some issues with kudzu so you need to disable it:chkconfig kudzu off

See the following links for more details:

• http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/Serial/serial-console.html
• http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/

Tags: Linux, Console, Gr33n Data