OpenBSD Journal

HOWTO: Serial console on alpha 3000/300 series

Contributed by Dengue on from the arrigo-and-his-alpha dept.

Arrigo Triulzi writes : "Reading through the installation instructions for OpenBSD (but NetBSD too) it appears that nobody knows or mentions a useful little tidbit of alpha lore. On old DEC 3000/300 systems, the smallest of the family, you can indeed force serial by unplugging the keyboard and monitor but this will cause a slight problem on reboot: the machine will remain in console mode and not auto-boot. To fix this you need to open the box (two screws at the back, then lift case by using the black rubber-cased screws as fulcrum points for your fingers - yes, it hurts if your fingers slip) and locate a 4-pin jumper called W2 which sits behind the SCSI connector for the main disk. Default is pins 1-2, change it to 2-3 to force serial. Arrigo "

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Comments
  1. By Anonymous Coward () on

    Almost every DEC Alpha (with the possible exception of the NT specific systems that lack the SRM) can be put into console mode either by lack of kbd/monitor OR configuring it that way at the three chevron prompt. The AXP systems are very flexible in their configuration and I don't see why the OpenBSD FAQ should be a replacement for RTFM.

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