openbmc / obmc-console

OpenBMC host console infrastructure
Apache License 2.0
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Can I use uart5 for SOL ? #21

Open ClaudiusJXK opened 6 months ago

ClaudiusJXK commented 6 months ago

I am currently working with an aspeed2600 chip, and due to issues with my host not powering up, only /dev/ttyS4 (uart5) is operational at the moment. I'm attempting to establish a Serial Over LAN (SOL) connection using uart5. To this end, I've configured obmc-console and modified the socket-id within the phosphor-ipmi-net to align with my setup. After applying these changes, I was able to successfully establish an SOL connection. However, I'm encountering a significant issue: there is no response or output when input is provided. This lack of response occurs regardless of whether I'm connecting through the IPMI SOL or using obmc-console-client. In both scenarios, the connection can be established without errors, but there is no interaction or feedback from the system once connected.

Could anyone provide insights or suggestions on how to troubleshoot or resolve this issue? Any help in understanding why there's no output or response despite a successful connection would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

amboar commented 6 months ago

I am currently working with an aspeed2600 chip, and due to issues with my host not powering up, only /dev/ttyS4 (uart5) is operational at the moment. I'm attempting to establish a Serial Over LAN (SOL) connection using uart5.

Generally ttyS4 (UART5) is the BMC console. Is that the case for you? There tend to be constraints that prevent it from being useful for the host, and given your host isn't booting, maybe it's not surprising that it isn't responsive if that's something you're trying.

Given that, I'll assume you're using UART5 for the BMC console. Can you walk through why it's necessary to have SoL for the BMC? If you're using OpenBMC, why not use regular ssh as a direct means to log in for a shell?

You typically can't rely on SoL for the BMC console, as if your BMC is not functional in some way it's likely the stack isn't functional enough to enable SoL anyway. A direct serial connection is the only reliable way to deal with that. You also need to consider that ttyS4 is the BMC-side UART of the link. You'd need another UART to pair with it to use it as a regular serial console.