Linux – Garbled using from Dell Drac for serial console redirection

consoledraclinux

I'm trying to get my DRAC 5 card to do serial console redirection so that I can SSH into it and access the server's bios / grub / bootup / console.

So far, I can see/edit the bios, however as soon as grub starts the output get's all jumbled up. I'm assuming this may be configuration related (though at this point I can't see what).

Configs so far are :

BIOS

  • Console redirection over Com2
  • Type : vt100/vt200
  • No redirect after boot

Grub2 on Ubuntu 10.04

  • serial –unit=1 –speed=115200 –word=8 –parity=no –stop=1
  • terminal –timeout=30 serial console
  • (kernel line :: ) linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-31-server root=/dev/mapper/sys-dom0 ro console=tty1 console=ttyS1,115200n8r

The output itself, ends up appearing like :

��g������Bp)���'����-���C�i))a�R!{���ņ�BC!�󄄕�i滑�����R!{���ņ߅C!'�����뤄����d�"�m�+-o�q��1Τ�Χ�+�ᤄ0�����餄����d�"?C!���s�����k뤄����d�"?C!��9u��!!!!��9�R!a���Ç$ �����i���r��:�R����B������d�"���!{�u����BS���/a�S�ć�3ߤ儤�S�����i�ąbi%)����������ąbi%)-���!)!��)������+�)�Ƥ�!����s!1Φ�r!����󄄕/+��)))+))���!���������k������+a

I know there are settings specific for Xen, and I'll worry about those later. At this stage, I really need to get GRUB available so that I can test custom kernels. Either the kernel's I've been trying are failing or "grub-set-default" does nothing.

Annoying thing is, on a newer server / DRAC combo the configs work fine with the same version of Ubuntu, go figure -_-

Any ideas, troubleshooting steps, etc… would be a lifesaver.

Best Answer

Looks like the bios and your serial client are using a different baud-rate as the 115k2 used by grub. Or the word-size doesn't match. Has to be something like that. Maybe the newer server defaults to (or is configured for) 115k2 in Bios redirect/drac, but the other one is not ? Without experience with DRAC or DELL bios redirects (we are a HP shop here) I can't tell for sure but I think you will have to look there instead of at the Ubuntu installation.

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