[Soekris] Serial console

[Ted Phelps]

Hi Andi,

"Andi Reinbrech" writes:
> Has anyone got a working 2.6.20 kernel on a serial console?  I have a
> 2.6.12 that came with the preloaded software on my soekris board, and it
> works 100%.

Yep, works fine for me.

> I need to upgrade the kernel to 2.6.20 because this version includes
> native support for my USB Serial Bridge, but I can't get it to boot
> properly using ttyS0 as the main console.
>
> I get an error "Warning: unable to open initial console", but all the
> normal kernel printk's before that warning are printed onto the serial
> console, so the 8250/16550 kernel support is working 100%.  Because this
> seems to work I can only assume that my problem is .config or udev
> related?

I don't know which .config you're talking about?

A quick grep through the linux-2.6.20 sources shows that this error is
coming from init/main.c's init_post function, when it is unable to open
/dev/console.  Presumably the file doesn't exist, which could be a udev
configuration problem.  Or you made need to create /dev/console by hand:

    mknod /dev/console c 5 1


> My kernel is set to boot with "console=ttyS0", and like I mentioned, the
> console messages are in fact printed to the serial port.  After this
> warning message, the system seems to be running, as I get messages to the
> serial port when I add/remove my USB flash drive.  The problem seems to be
> that the getty doesn't want to start on the serial port.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas, or a working .config I can try?


Cheers,
-Ted