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>Appendix C. Upgrading <SPAN
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>Red Hat Linux</SPAN
> from a
serial console</TD
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>C.9. Create boot disk for serial console</H1
><P
>Once the upgrade has been sucessfully done create a boot
floppy which has serial console support. This is most simply done
by creating a boot disk, as done by the
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>anaconda</SPAN
> installer or as described in
<A
HREF="preparation-fallback.html"
>Section 2.1</A
>; modifying the configuration
file <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>\SYSLINUX.CFG</TT
> to configure the boot
loader to use the serial console, as described in <A
HREF="configure-boot-loader-syslinux.html"
>Section 4.3</A
>; and finally configuring
the kernel to use the serial console, as described in <A
HREF="configure-kernel-syslinux.html"
>Section 5.3</A
>.</P
><P
>An alternative is to create your own
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>mkbootdisk</SPAN
> <SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>RPM</SPAN
>
package containing a modified copy of the shell script
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/sbin/mkbootdisk</TT
>.</P
><P
>The <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>\SYSLINUX.CFG</TT
> file on the boot
floppy is written by <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkbootdisk</B
> using the code
in <A
HREF="rhbootdisk.html#RHBOOTDISK-MKBOOTDISK-ORIGINAL"
>Figure C-3</A
>. We alter this
code to use the serial console; the result is shown in <A
HREF="rhbootdisk.html#RHBOOTDISK-MKBOOTDISK-SERIAL"
>Figure C-4</A
>.</P
><DIV
CLASS="FIGURE"
><A
NAME="RHBOOTDISK-MKBOOTDISK-ORIGINAL"
></A
><P
><B
>Figure C-3. Extract from Red Hat Linux 7.2
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>mkbootdisk</TT
> which creates
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>SYSLINUX.CFG</TT
></B
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><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>cat > $MOUNTDIR/syslinux.cfg <<EOF
default linux
prompt 1
display boot.msg
timeout 100
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append $INITRDARG root=$rootdev
EOF</PRE
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><A
NAME="RHBOOTDISK-MKBOOTDISK-SERIAL"
></A
><P
><B
>Figure C-4. Altered extract from <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>mkbootdisk</TT
>, which
creates a <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>SYSLINUX.CFG</TT
> that uses a serial
console</B
></P
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><FONT
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><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>cat > $MOUNTDIR/syslinux.cfg <<EOF
serial 0 9600
default linux
prompt 1
display boot.msg
timeout 100
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append $INITRDARG root=$rootdev console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600n8
EOF</PRE
></FONT
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><P
>Created boot floppies will now use the serial console.</P
><P
>By far the best alternative would be the addition of
parameters to <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkbootdisk</B
> to allow the kernel
parameters and serial port, speed and flow control to be given when
the boot floppy is created. For this enhancement request see Red
Hat Bugzilla entry <A
HREF="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=59351"
TARGET="_top"
>59351</A
>.</P
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