I purchased a handy little adapter at Radio Shack (of all places). It is a null modem serial adapter, so it allows me to take a 9 pin DB9 serial cable and convert it to a Null Modem cable. What I like about it is that I can keep this adapter in my bag, and if I get stuck somewhere else, I can purchase a serial cable (you can find them at Best Buy from time to time even). I have been through the futile exercise of trying to find a Null Modem cable at 8pm in downtown Chicago before. Not fun.
All of that being said, I bet you can find a Null Modem serial cable at Stansifer here in Bloomington. They tend to have a lof of that old school stuff kicking around there.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Schatz" <sorbetninja@gmail.com>
To: "Bloomington LINUX Users Group" <blug@cs.indiana.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:37:45 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [BLUG] Managing a server via serial port (anyone have a spare serial cable?)
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away a lot of outdated computer equipment.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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