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    Seeing nothing through serial port on Alix board

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    • P
      phabulosa
      last edited by

      I was trying to update the Bios on a Alix board.

      I connected the serial port and set 9600 8N1, put the Freedos bios update CF card and powerup.

      On Hyperterminal, I am not seeing anything. Is this normal?

      If my CF image is bad, what will I see through the serial port.

      There are too many things could go wrong here. Please help me trouble shooting.

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      • C
        CaseyBlackburn
        last edited by

        Is the card setup to do output over serial?

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        • P
          phabulosa
          last edited by

          @CaseyBlackburn:

          Is the card setup to do output over serial?

          I don't know if the card was setup to do output over serial. IS there a jumper or something to do this kind of setup?

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            You need to make sure your freedos version on the CF card is sending it's console to the serial port.
            It should have a line in autoexec.bat (or one of the start up files) like: ctty com1.
            Here is the code I added to get the serial console up.

            
            beep
            beep 
            beep
            mode com1 9600 n 8 1
            echo Switching Console to COM1 at 9600 8N1
            ctty com1
            echo Freedos on COM1:
            
            

            I put in the beeps so I'd know the CF card was booting even if the serial cable wasn't working.
            With this type of setup you have to make sure you don't use any type of graphical mode as it won't be sent to the serial port. This includes most bios update programs! Instead call the bios program in a silent mode so that it doesn't require any interaction.

            Steve

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            • J
              Jarpse
              last edited by

              Did you change the port's bit rate in the BIOS to 9600 to accomodate pfSense? If not, try connecting with 38400/8/N/1. That's the default setting.

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