IBM BladeCenter Deployment Guide
There are several well written white papers available that describe the steps required to configure Serial Over LAN for the BladeCenter. The firmware sections of these documents can be skipped as long as you have followed the firmware recommendations in this document. For Linux, you must make the changes to both /etc/inittab and your boot loader configuration file (either lilo.conf or grub.conf) in order to get the full functionality under Linux.
4.8.2 Summary of Linux changes for SOL
1.Add the following line to the end of the # Run gettys in standard runlevels section of the /etc/inittab file. This enables hardware flow control and enables users to log in through the SOL console.
7:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -h ttyS1 19200 vt102
2.Add the following line at the bottom of the /etc/securetty file to enable a user to log in as the root user through the SOL console:
ttyS1
3.LILO configuration
In order to enable SOL in Linux, we need to add 2 parms to the kernel line in the bootloader configuration file:
console=ttyS1,19200n8
console=tty1
The order of these two parms affects where a portion of the Linux boot (and shutdown messages) are displayed, and consequently how the Linux boot can be managed. Basically, your two options are having the messages go to the main console (the one you see via Remote Control) or the serial console (SOL). The existing documentation refers to these options as being able to monitor the boot via SOL, or being able to interact with the boot via SOL.
If you are using LILO, complete the following steps:
1. Complete the following steps to modify the /etc/lilo.conf file:
a.Add the following text to the end of the first default=linux line
b.Comment out the message=/boot/message line by adding a # at the beginning of this line. This disables the graphical LILO boot screen since it will not display correctly in the SOL session. The next time the blade is booted, the text LILO: prompt appears in place of the graphical boot screen.
c.Increase the timeout value to give the operator a better chance to choose which way the blade boots.
d.Add the following line before the first image=... line:
#This will allow you to only Monitor the OS boot via SOL
e.Add the following text to the end of the first label=linux line
f.Add the following line to the first image=... section. This enables SOL. append="console=ttyS1,19200n8 console=tty1"
g.Add the following lines between the two image=... sections:
#This will allow you to Interact with the OS boot via SOL
2.Run the lilo command to store and activate the LILO configuration: /sbin/lilo
When the Linux operating system starts, a LILO boot: prompt is displayed instead of the graphical user interface. Pressing Tab while at this prompt will install all of the boot options that are listed. To load the operating system in interactive mode, type
To see the choices of kernels for boot from, simply hit the tab key.To
36 | © 2006 IBM Version 3.0, 3/10/2006 |
The BladeCenter Deployment Guide is intended as a personal productivity tool. It is not intended to be comprehensive and is provided for
guidance only, on an 'as is basis' without warranty of any kind. Please be aware that its contents have not been certified by IBM.
