No serial console

Getting Started with IPFire Updates Trouble
1

Hi. New to IpFire, but not new to computers. Half a century of Windows and Linux experience. I have a problem with the IpFire serial console.

My machine has a native serial port. It communicates with a serial USB dongle installed in Windows. The connection works. On bootup, I see the AMI Aptio screen via console redirection. Then I see “EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path. EFI stub: Measured initrd data into PCR 9.”

And that’s it. No serial console while IpFire is running.

This is not a bad cable etc. issue. The BIOS can talk to the console. IpFire can’t.

Any way I can coax IpFire to talk to my serial console while IpFire is up?

2

You can activate the console after installation by modifying the boot settings:

However, you will have to choose between the serial console and the screen; IPFire does not allow the use of both simultaneously.

1 Like
3

And how would I do that?

4

By following the link in my reply, you will find the commands to use:

# Enable serial console in GRUB defaults
          echo "GRUB_TERMINAL=\"serial console\"" >> /etc/default/grub
          echo "GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND=\"serial --unit=0 --speed=115200\"" >> /etc/default/grub
		  echo "GRUB_GFXMODE=\"none\"" >> /etc/default/grub
		  sed -i -e "s|console=tty1|console=ttyS0,115200n8|" /etc/default/grub

# Re-generate GRUB configuration
          /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Then reboot.

IPFire will then display the output on the serial console.

5

Thank you. I wish I could tell you “That helped” but it did not. The change indeed made all the regular boot output appear on my serial console, until it reached:

“EXT4-fs (nvme0n1p4): unmounting filesystem 4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae.
dracut: Checking ext4: /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae
dracut: issuing e2fsck -a /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae
dracut: /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae: clean, 27881/30425088 files, 2718369/121694726 blocks
dracut: Mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae with -o defaults,ro
EXT4-fs (nvme0n1p4): orphan cleanup on readonly fs
EXT4-fs (nvme0n1p4): mounted filesystem 4a973758-834e-4db3-8816-13892b2992ae ro with ordered data mode. Quota mode: none.
dracut: Mounted root filesystem /dev/nvme0n1p4
dracut: Switching root.”

Then it stopped.. Finally, the panic setting took over, we were back to keyboard and monitor, and IpFire booted as before.. Thank God I kept a backup of grub.

It would really help to make that a setting in the UI instead of asking the user to muck around with grub, and potentially let him end up with a dead machine..

6

Sorry it didn’t work.
Make a backup and reinstall IPFire using the console; that’s the recommended method.

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1 Like
7

The /etc/default/grub file has changed since the last version.

You must now use

# Enable serial console in GRUB defaults
          echo "GRUB_TERMINAL=\"serial console\"" >> /etc/default/grub
          echo "GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND=\"serial --unit=0 --speed=115200\"" >> /etc/default/grub
		  echo "GRUB_GFXMODE=\"none\"" >> /etc/default/grub
		  sed -i -e "s|console=tty1|console=ttyS0,115200n8|" /etc/default/grub

# Re-generate GRUB configuration
          /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
1 Like
8

Thanks, bot too late. I already went the reinstall route,