cables (though they did have a lot of other goodies). I'd check
Stansifer's—I'm almost positive they have them, and you can call
before heading down there. I have an old null modem cable around
somewhere, but I'm out of the country, and I think the cable might be
at my parents' house (far from Bloomington) anyway.
--
Jonathan
2009/7/16 Barry Schatz <sorbetninja@gmail.com>:
> Thank you Jordan, Jeremy and David for your offers. I'll need a serial
> cable in the future, so I might as well buy my own. I'll check IU
> Surplus first.
>
> Thank you Steven for possibly saving me a lot of grief and another trip
> to the store. Hopefully the surplus cables have been marked by their
> previous owners. I'll try minicom first, as it seems less of a hack than
> using screen. Fortunately most of my machines have serial ports, so I
> won't need a special adapter.
>
>
> -Barry
>
> Steven Black wrote:
>> You *will* need a Null-Modem cable. If you're getting cables second
>> hand, try to look for one that someone has written "NULL" on as they
>> do make pass-through 9-pin serial cables that are female on both ends.
>> (These cables were fairly common when using older KVM switches. 9 pin
>> pass-through cables were required for serial mice connections.)
>>
>> Without the hand-writing it is frequently impossible to tell a
>> null-modem cable from a pass-through cable, so I recommend you use a
>> sharpie if you buy a cable new.
>>
>> If the available computers nearby don't have a serial port, you'll want
>> to get a USB to Serial adaptor. I think at this point most of them are
>> supported by Linux, but I've managed to avoid needing them.
>>
>> You should have full access to the BIOS/CMOS from the serial port. It is
>> a fun experience watching a machine perform POST over the serial port.
>>
>> Minicom works well for serial access. I would go that route first, and
>> avoid the stty/screen bit if possible. Also, expect the 115k bit rate.
>> If it doesn't work, drop down to a lower speed. The BIOS is likely
>> configured for just one bit rate, though the console login may be
>> configured to accept multiple.
>>
>> I suggest letting it boot up then playing around with the bit rate and
>> pressing 'enter' until the login prompt shows up. The getty shouldn't
>> change bitrates on you unless you send break (CTRL-A F in Minicom).
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steven Black
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 10:48:16AM -0400, David Ernst wrote:
>>
>>> You might also try the IU surplus store. I finally went there a month
>>> or so ago, and among the weird collection of stuff they have is a pile
>>> of cables for (iirc) $1 each. Doesn't matter what the cable is, it's
>>> the same price.
>>>
>>> http://www.indiana.edu/~surplus/
>>>
>>> I also might have such a cable if none of these other leads are making
>>> it. But I'd rather not even dig through my cable box unless I know
>>> that you'll need it. :)
>>>
>>> david
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 10:42:34AM -0400, Jordan Thevenow-Harrison wrote:
>>>
>>>> PC Max sells them. If they, for some insane reason, are out, I have one I
>>>> can lend you. I've never used screen for that, but have had success with
>>>> minicom :)
>>>> --
>>>> Jordan Thevenow-Harrison
>>>> jtth@jtth.net
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jul 16, 2009, at 10:37 AM, Barry Schatz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I figured I should ask the list for some advice.
>>>>>
>>>>> A couple weeks ago a company next door to mine was moving, and giving
>>>>> away a lot of outdated computer equipment. I grabbed a 2U VA Linux
>>>>> server. After all, it's free (gratis) rackmount server and a piece of
>>>>> Linux history. However, I soon found out that there's no way I can
>>>>> actually get access to the darn thing. The BIOS is set to boot from
>>>>> the
>>>>> hard drive first, and the VGA hardware is turned off. My only hope is
>>>>> console access via the serial port.
>>>>>
>>>>> So here's the problem: I don't have a 9-pin serial cable. I don't know
>>>>> where I can get one short of ordering from Newegg or driving up to
>>>>> Fry's
>>>>> in Indy. I also don't know if I need a null modem to make the
>>>>> connection
>>>>> work. Do any of you on the list in the Bloomington area have such a
>>>>> cable?
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, I'm aware that I can use screen to interface with the serial
>>>>> port.
>>>>> If I recall, Kevin mentioned this bit of goodness:
>>>>> stty 9600
>>>>> screen /dev/ttyS0
>>>>>
>>>>> Any other bits of advice to help me root this box? I really just want
>>>>> to
>>>>> dban the drive and install a recent distro to make myself a
>>>>> fileserver.
>>>>>
>>>>> Oh and one more thing: the hard drive is Ultra2 SCSI LVD. I can't
>>>>> easily
>>>>> plug it into another machine to tamper with it.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Barry
>>>>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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