[U-Boot-Users] Netconsole at startup

[Robin Gilks]

Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> In message <4151F179.40100 at tait.co.nz> you wrote:
> 
>>Bit of a puzzle with netconsole operation.
> 
> 
> Which architecture, which board?

I thought the whole point of the core code of u-boot was that it was 
architecture independent - I'm obviously wrong there...Its a custom 
mpc859 board as it happens.

>>If I undef CFG_CONSOLE_IS_IN_ENV, then I can boot to the serial console 
>>and manually switch it to nc and it works great. Problem with that is 
>>that on boot it just uses the first device that has the correct in/out 
>>properties - i.e. serial and ignores any env setting.
> 
> 
> What exactly is the problem with this? It's what I would expect... If
> you want to  automatically  switch  to  NC  as  soon  as  it  becomes
> available you can always do this using some CONFIG_PREBOOT settings.

I was relating the results of the two possible states of the compile 
time #define

> 
>>If I define CFG_CONSOLE_IS_IN_ENV, then the netconsole stuff refuses to 
>>run (i.e. it doesn't use serial but it doesn't use nc either!!) - even 
> 
> 
> What does your overwrite_console() look like?

Why should I even have it defined - if its supposed to read the device 
from the environment then it seems reasonable that it does so at a point 
when initialisation is complete and its able to make use of it.

> And  what  exactly  are  you  trying  to  do  here?  What  does  your
> environment settings look like?

I have stdin=nc, stdout=nc, stderr=nc, ncip=172.25.x.x - all values that 
work fine when used interactively!!

>>Any clues from anyone? Should netconsole be able to run from bootup?
> 
> 
> What do you mean by "bootup"? NC will or course only work  after  the
> main  intitialization  sequence  has  been  completed,  i.  e.  after
> relocation to RAM, and after ethernet and devices initialization.

I can see the assignment in console_init_r() occuring OK for the values 
in the environment, its just that (presumably) the init order is not 
correct somewhere  so it doesn't actually work!!

The whole point is now moot since your suggestion of CONFIG_PREBOOT 
solves the problem - its a bit of a cackhanded way of doing it which is 
what threw me for a while there!

One suggestion for the shell script to drive it from Linux - add a 
'-icrnl' to the stty line to stop 'cr' characters getting translated - 
works wonders at confounding the password patch from Pantelis Antoniou :-))


-- 
Robin Gilks
Senior Design Engineer          Phone: (+64)(3) 357 1569
Tait Electronics                Fax  :  (+64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch        Email : robin.gilks at tait.co.nz
New Zealand

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