Bug 12184

SERIAL_CONSOLES="115200;console" [3]

So the problem is that the script expects the console (argument 2 to start_getty) to have an index.

Can you just use a different value for the dummy console?

@Ross: Where should this index come from?

I could use another value as a dummy console.

What would you suggest?

I see in the official repo[1] e.g. for the Beagle Bone Black:

SERIAL_CONSOLE = "115200 ttyO0"

which is actually deprecated for  

SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;console"

and I am not quite sure where this index you are talking about should come from.

[1] https://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/poky/tree/meta-yocto-bsp/conf/machine/beaglebone.conf

I'll try with

SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;console1" and see if this makes any difference.

Did not work as well.

If I use a non dummy value it works:

in top level machine config:

SERIAL_CONSOLES="115200;ttymxc1"

created this inittab:

mxc1:12345:respawn:/bin/start_getty 115200 ttymxc1 vt102

which works for this specific board.

... but how would I create a rootfs which works on various different boards with different consoles with /bin/start_getty as I can do with /sbin/getty?

A dummy console e.g. 

SERIAL_CONSOLES="115200;ttyres1" does not make /bin/start_getty freak out, but this does not help, since I still don't get a getty:

INIT: Id "res1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

... and ...

a list of consoles where I add e.g. 2 consoles for 2 boards does not work as well, since one of them will always be invalid which leads to something like this:

Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.4 imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp /dev/ttymxc1

INIT: Id "res1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.4 imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp /dev/ttymxc1

imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp login: 
Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.4 imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp /dev/ttymxc1

imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp login: 
Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.4 imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp /dev/ttymxc1

imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp login: root
root@imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp:~# [   55.641543] random: crng init done

root@imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp:~# 
root@imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp:~# 
root@imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp:~# 
root@imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp:~#

If we insist that a oe/yocto build has always to be for one very specific board than /bin/start_getty enforces this behaviour and I will need to add this bbappend to my meta layer (which is how I have it right now and how it works for me).

do_install_append() {
        sed -i 's/bin\/start_getty/sbin\/getty/' ${D}${sysconfdir}/inittab
}

The sad thing is, that it worked before the script and the script broke it and it's not very clear to me what this magic script tries to solve.

I found this:

https://bugzilla.yoctoproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10844

and this:

https://patchwork.openembedded.org/patch/144225/

(In reply to comment #3)
> @Ross: Where should this index come from?
> 
> I could use another value as a dummy console.
> 
> What would you suggest?
> 
> I see in the official repo[1] e.g. for the Beagle Bone Black:
> 
> SERIAL_CONSOLE = "115200 ttyO0"

This shouldn't be a problem since we process SERIAL_CONSOLES in bitbake.conf as:

SERIAL_CONSOLES ??= "${@d.getVar('SERIAL_CONSOLE').replace(' ', ';')}"

(In reply to comment #6)
> ... and ...
> 
> a list of consoles where I add e.g. 2 consoles for 2 boards does not work as
> well, since one of them will always be invalid which leads to something like
> this:
> 
> Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.4 imx6q-phytec-mira-rdk-nand-bsp
> /dev/ttymxc1
> 
> INIT: Id "res1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

This generally happens when we set the device in inittab and it is not available (not enabled in kernel)

One way to fix this scenario is to use "SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK" instead of SERIAL_CONSOLES. Could you please try this method and see if the error persists ?


commit 5e7d4ca3f34ef2eded0605327feed1f4611fe232
Author: Matthew McClintock <msm@freescale.com>
Date:   Wed Jul 11 18:15:27 2012 -0500

    sysvinit-inittab_2.88dsf.bb: Allow multiple serial port consoles to be defined
    
    Set SERIAL_CONSOLES if you want to define multiple serial consoles, also if
    you need to check for the presence of the serial consoles you can also define
    SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK to determine if these are present when you boot. This
    will prevent error message that pop up when the serial port is not present.
    
    SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;ttyS0 115200;ttyS1 115200;ttyEHV0"
    SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK = "${SERIAL_CONSOLES}"
    
    The above lines in machine.conf or elsewhere will have the effect of having
    two serial consoles and removing any that are not present at boot
    
    (From OE-Core rev: eecd65f188ba2c924626b7e1bf5c8e2eb51e9b59)
    
    Signed-off-by: Saul Wold <sgw@linux.intel.com>
    Signed-off-by: Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>

Please let us know if using "SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK" instead of "SERIAL_CONSOLE" fixes this.

@Robert please see @Maxin's fix on Comment 9. Let us know if that doesn't work for you.

I am currently on the road, so it might take some time to test it.
I do have rocko with the "commit 5e7d4ca3f34ef2eded0605327feed1f4611fe232" inside. Please stay tuned for a while.

I did a quick test while delivering a training.

machine config:
https://pastebin.com/gaM3GpVj

bootlog excerpt:
https://pastebin.com/F6FCyu2g

new inittab generated (which does not work)
https://pastebin.com/cqXRTTw6

======

This is the bootlog excerpt as it should be:

https://pastebin.com/uaMQhFY0

This is the inittab which works:

https://pastebin.com/RWcZcMPC

Please note, that the magic line in inittab which makes it work is:

sole:12345:respawn:/sbin/getty 115200 console vt102

Am I doing the right thing in machine config?

SERIAL_CONSOLES="115200;console"
SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK = "${SERIAL_CONSOLES}"

Note that console is just a dummy value, which is replaced with the right value by the bootloader:

root@am335x-phytec-wega-bsp:~# cat /proc/cmdline 
console=ttyO0,115200n8 ip=192.168.42.11:192.168.42.1:192.168.42.1:255.255.255.0:am335x-phytec-wega:eth0:off nfsroot=192.168.42.1:/opt/poky/wega-rootfs,v3,tcp noinitrd nohlt panic=1
root@am335x-phytec-wega-bsp:~# 

For this Sitara based board it's console=ttyO0,115200n8

I assume, that I should add all the possible consoles for all my boards in SERIAL_CONSOLES.

something like: 

SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;ttyO0 115200;ttymxc1"
SERIAL_CONSOLES_CHECK = "${SERIAL_CONSOLES}"

for sitara and i.mx6

With a quick check for sitara it seems to work:

inittab:

# Normally not reached, but fallthrough in case of emergency.
z6:6:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
O0:12345:respawn:/bin/start_getty 115200 ttyO0 vt102

(In reply to comment #15)
> With a quick check for sitara it seems to work:
> 
> inittab:
> 
> # Normally not reached, but fallthrough in case of emergency.
> z6:6:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
> O0:12345:respawn:/bin/start_getty 115200 ttyO0 vt102

Good to hear that it worked for you. Do you think it is fine to close this bug, then ?

If you like you can close it. I would like to test it on a few more boards just to be sure it works for my use case.

Thanks!

(In reply to comment #17)
> If you like you can close it. I would like to test it on a few more boards
> just to be sure it works for my use case.
> 
> Thanks!

Sure. Please feel free to reopen this, if you run into any troubles while testing on other boards.