SUMMARY: ttya as console (without breaking X)

From: Daniel Berglund (db@fy.chalmers.se)
Date: Tue Dec 03 1991 - 12:19:59 CST


Some time ago, I asked:
>Is it possible to use /dev/ttya as console on a Sparcstation 1 (4.1.1) without
>making the framebuffer, keyboard and mouse unusable?

>We changed "input-device" and "output-device" to "ttya" in the PROM monitor
>but after reboot, accesses to /dev/kbd, /dev/mouse, and /dev/fb resulted
>in "No such device or address".

I got a few responses, ranging from "yes" to "no". The correct answer turned
out to be YES, it can be done. The solution, however, is not a standard,
supported one, but that's life.

Thanks to Gijs Mos, Kevin N. Hayes, Malcolm Caldwell, David DiGiacomo, and
Peter Lamb!

Proceed as follows:
1) Make new special files corresponding to the "raw" keyboard and mouse:
   mknod /dev/zs2 c 12 2 # The keyboard
   mknod /dev/zs3 c 12 3 # The mouse

   These are just serial ports and will need some "special treatment"
   in order to behave as /dev/kbd and /dev/mouse.

2) Shutdown your machine and tell the monitor to
   setenv input-device ttya # Or perhaps ttyb
   setenv output-device ttya

   You can also use eeprom(8S).

3) Reset and reboot. /dev/fb, /dev/kbd and /dev/mouse are now useless.
   In my case, /dev/bwtwo0 works as a substitute for /dev/fb.
   Also /dev/ttya (ttyb) is useless - if you have an entry in ttytab
   for it, comment it out.

4) If you want to run

   Sunview: start with "-dev /dev/bwtwo0 -k /dev/zs2 -m /dev/zs3"

   MIT X: patch the server to accept flags for non-default mouse and keyboard
          devices. If you don't want to hack the R5 source yourself, you can
          get patches by anonymous ftp from adagio.fy.chalmers.se
          (129.16.117.10) in
          /pub/MITXservernonstandarddevicepatches.tar.Z. NOTE: these
          are somewhat Q&D and assume you have a TYPE-4 keyboard!
          Sorry for that - please see below.

          Start your new server with
            "-dev /dev/bwtwo0 -mousedev /dev/zs3 -kbddev /dev/zs2"

   Openwindows: what? Ohh! :) You will have to
          setenv MOUSE /dev/zs3
          setenv KEYBOARD /dev/zs2
          and tweak /usr/openwin/etc/NeWS/keybdinit.ps a little.
          If you have a type-4 keyboard, replace
            /Default {
                false
            }
          with
            /Default {
                (NeWS/US4.ps) LoadFile
            }
          the file name depending on your hardware, nationality and personal
          taste.
          No warranties!

And now for a new question: Tha man page kbd(4S) states that /dev/kbd
is, essentially, a serial port with the "kb" and "ttcompat" stream
modules pushed onto it. But if I open /dev/zs2 (mknode:d as above and
with {in|out}put-device directed to ttya), push ttcompat and kb onto
it, a KIOCTYPE ioctl will return -1 (type unknown) instead of the
expected KB_SUN4. Why? All other KIOCxxxs work perfectly well. - As
you might have guessed, that's why the abovementioned patches assume a
type-4 keyboard. Mildly irritating.

-- 
Daniel Berglund                                     db@fy.chalmers.se
Chalmers Univ. of Technology, G|teborg, Sweden



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