[SunHELP] VGA Card, Term Server, and Console Port Question(s)

[Brian Hechinger]

> I am responsible for remotely supporting a bunch of Sun servers (varying   
> models).  I was not involved in the physical installation of the servers.  The

always makes it more interesting. :)

> bottom line is that I have no console port access to these remote servers.  The
> closest I can get to console port access is ttya access via a term server.  To
> the best of my knowledge, this is not the "true" console port (ie. I cannot do a
> stop-a and get the ok prompt, etc.).  According to the person who set this whole
> deal up, the reason why I can't get console port access is because the server(s)
> contain vga cards.  This person says: "The only way to make the TTY ports the
> default console port would be to remove all the VGA cards from the boxes."  Is
> this true?  How do I identify/verify from an online/software standpoint that the
> server does contain a vga card?                                      

this is in fact not at all true.  a sun machine determines if it will use the
video console or the serial console either by a PROM setting (which is normally
set to autodetect) or by checking if the _keyboard_ is plugged in or not at
boot.  from your terminal server issue a BREAK and it will drop you to the PROM
monitor just like stop-a does.

> Thanks in advance for any/all information about this.
> Ann Waters 

you came to the right place, between everyone here we know everything.  or at
least think we do. :)

cheers,

-brian