Getty's on serial consoles need to be consistent

[ubuntu-server-builder]

This bug was originally filed in Launchpad as LP: #1359590

Launchpad details

affected_projects = ['util-linux (Ubuntu)']
assignee = None
assignee_name = None
date_closed = None
date_created = 2014-08-21T07:47:01.408972+00:00
date_fix_committed = None
date_fix_released = None
id = 1359590
importance = medium
is_complete = False
lp_url = https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1359590
milestone = None
owner = sabdfl
owner_name = Mark Shuttleworth
private = False
status = confirmed
submitter = sabdfl
submitter_name = Mark Shuttleworth
tags = []
duplicates = []

Launchpad user Mark Shuttleworth(sabdfl) wrote on 2014-08-21T07:47:01.408972+00:00

In our cloud images today we launch a getty on ttyS0, as long as it's not in a container. We don't launch a getty on ttyS1-n even if they exist.

In MAAS, which also uses cloud images, it would often be useful to put getty's on the serial port that is mapped to remote serial access, such as IPMI SOL. It is however difficult to know which is the correct getty.

Broadly speaking I think we should have a consistent approach to getty's. That might mean:

• launch a getty on each ttySn that passes an stty test (as per ttyS0 currently)
• allow cloud-init to prevent some of those, via vendordata or userdata or default behaviour per-cloud

or

• launch no getty's on ttyS, but
• allow cloud-init to create them based on vendordata or userdata or default behaviour per-cloud

[ubuntu-server-builder]

Launchpad user Mark Shuttleworth(sabdfl) wrote on 2014-08-21T07:50:40.201423+00:00

Not sure if this should also be tracked against the cloud image builder.

[ubuntu-server-builder]

Launchpad user Ben Howard(darkmuggle-deactivatedaccount) wrote on 2014-08-29T21:27:33.562597+00:00

One big thing to consider with this is that some clouds (i.e CloudSigma and Joyent) use a serial console as a meta-data channel. In at least one case, activating a getty on the meta-data channel tty will result in the instance being unbootable. For this reason, I think that baking them into the Cloud Images is probably a bad thing.