[vox-tech] stopping serial console

[Jeff Newmiller]

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, eric nelson wrote:

> I built a kernel today, and checked 'support console on serial port'.  Then, 
> I wanted to set up minicom between the pc and another box, and I got a login 
> (duh, that's what I set up).  But, I don't really want a login, I just want 
> to use the port, and don't want to recompile the kernel.
> 
> Anyway to stop this behavior?

I haven't done this myself, but I have seen explanations before. Kernel
recompilation with "support console on serial port" is only needed in
order to be able to see boot messages on a serial terminal.

A serial port driver must be installed in order to use a serial
port.  Almost all kernels are compiled with serial support enabled, either
compiled-in or as a module.

With a serial driver installed, you can specify the corresponding serial
port devices to software that uses serial ports.  One such program is
getty, controlled by the "init" process according to the settings in
/etc/inittab.

If you don't want boot messages to be spit out the serial port, then you
don't want to enable "console on serial port" in the kernel.  (remove
bootloader "append=/dev/ttyS0").

If you don't want to see login messages on the serial port, then you want
to disable getty on that port in inittab.  I am not clear on how the
append kernel option affects this, but I think it is related to
redefinition of /dev/console by the kernel.

Look at the Serial howto and the Text terminal howto at
http://www.linuxdog.org, and
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/serial-console.txt.

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