Bug 5232

Summary:	install prompt missing on serial console
Product:	[Build System, Metadata & Runtime] OE-Core	Reporter:	Mihai Lindner <mihai.lindner>
Component:	deployment	Assignee:	Unassigned <unassigned>
Status:	RESOLVED OBSOLETE	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Low	CC:	dvhart, ee.peng.yeoh, jason.wessel, mariano.lopez, randy.macleod, richard.purdie, scott.a.garman
Version:	1.5
Target Milestone:	Future
Hardware:	x86
OS:	x86
Whiteboard:
OS type for building Yocto:	---	Type of Regression:	---
Verified:		Documentation change:	Don't know

Description Mihai Lindner 2013-09-19 13:19:15 UTC

Trying to do an installation, from USB, on SD card, at some point the following prompt will be printed (only on DVI monitor):
'''
Searching for a hard drive...
Found drive at /dev/mmcblk0. Do you want to install this image there ? [y/n]
'''
The issue is that the above install prompt is not also printed on serial console (debug port) and you cannot reply to it.

Comment 1 Darren Hart 2013-09-23 19:19:39 UTC

The problem appears to be that the initramfs doesn't start gettys using the machine-specific serial setup. Moving to deployment.

Comment 2 Darren Hart 2013-09-23 20:05:08 UTC

OK, this is more than just gettys. This is default console and such. Jason W. has been looking at this some with his recent syslinux/grub changes. I wonder if booting with "console=tty0" will address this. I always have to look this up and experiment.

Jason, any thoughts on how to get the installer itself to run on both the serial and the vga? Does the user need to select which at boot?

Comment 3 Darren Hart 2013-09-23 20:11:01 UTC

OK, so the default console is whichever console= is mentioned last in the Linux kernel argument list. If console=tty0 is removed from the install target in grub.cfg for the minnow live image, the installer starts on the serial console only.

Comment 4 Darren Hart 2013-09-23 20:53:01 UTC

Workaround: Remove "console=tty0" from the grub.cfg install stanza on the install media prior to installation if you want to install over serial.

Moving to 1.6 when the installer is likely to get some more core work done.

Comment 5 Mihai Lindner 2013-09-24 08:29:43 UTC

(In reply to comment #4)
> Workaround: Remove "console=tty0" from the grub.cfg install stanza on the
> install media prior to installation if you want to install over serial.
> 
> Moving to 1.6 when the installer is likely to get some more core work done.

Thanks!
Sure, using this workaround will address this for the time being.
Darren, I was thinking of maybe prompting for targeted install device on both ttys, I'm not sure if it's possible, but just mentioning here.

A note for whomever would read and need this, edit grub.cfg on the USB stick before plugging it in the minnowboard, remove "consolte=tty0", leaving just "console=ttyPCH0,115200". Editing and booting from grug command line could be a bit painful.

Comment 6 Darren Hart 2013-09-24 14:20:23 UTC

Yes, the final solution should include a grub prompt to install over serial or install over vga. I think Jason's recent efi/iso/hybrid image generation has some of the infrastructure necessary for this.

Comment 7 Darren Hart 2014-06-09 22:42:55 UTC

I'm going to assign this to Mark H. to own and manage with the deployment bugs as I will not be personally working on this any time soon.

Comment 8 Randy MacLeod 2020-06-25 08:33:06 UTC

Open a new bug if this is still a problem.