[ipxe-devel] menu & serial console

[Michael Brown]

On Tuesday 05 Mar 2013 21:00:53 Leo Baltus wrote:
> I tried using iPXE over a serial line using a menu.
> The output looks garbled and input like using arrow keys does not seem to
> work. Is this a tested and supported set-up?
> <snip>
> I used console redirection to serial by the BIOS.

The problem is that you have both iPXE and the BIOS's console redirection 
attempting to control the serial port.  At a minimum, you'll get two copies of 
each character; after you add in the various control codes typically generated 
by BIOS console redirection, the result will look inexplicably garbled.

You need to either disable CONSOLE_SERIAL, or disable the BIOS's console 
redirection.

You'll get more predictable results by disabling the BIOS's console 
redirection and leaving CONSOLE_SERIAL enabled; iPXE produces standard ANSI 
escape sequences that should work (including colours, menus, etc) on pretty 
much any serial terminal software.  BIOS console redirection tends to be more 
limited, and often doesn't cope well with things such as colour changes and 
cursor movement.

Michael