garbage characters appearing on my console

[Greg Traud_2]

Folks,
I just took over from another sysadmin. I couldn't get into the lan console, as I didn't know the password. I tried to hook up a terminal console on the 3port mux 'console' port, but when I press 'enter' on the terminal console, I get garbage characters.

My guess is that there is a baud difference between the console (700/96) and L class server it's trying to talk to.
I don't remember how to set baud on either (it's been a long time).

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

No.

The serial console works fine with L class servers. We used it for years until I figured out with itrc help how to properly take advantage of swc, secure web console.

I suggest checking the communications settings available from the funciton keys of the serial console. The terminal type should probably be hp or vt100. em100 is for OS installs of 11i or above.

Also, you may get better results by setting your TERM variable to hp in the .profile for root, or better yet immediatly after login.

SEP

[RAC_1]

1. Bits persecond-- 9600
2. Data Bits -- 8
3. Parity -- none
4. Stop bits -- 1
5. Flow Control -- none or Hardware

[Greg Traud_2]

1. Bits persecond-- 9600
2. Data Bits -- 8
3. Parity -- none
4. Stop bits -- 1
5. Flow Control -- none or Hardware

Where/how do I set this?

[Steven E. Protter]

All of this is set by pressing the special keys near the top of the keyboard.

If your unit is locked up, you might need to power cycle it and hold down ctrl-shift-d to reset the unit while powering up.

The menu can be brought up with the menu key near the top of the keyboard. Then its just pressing function keys.

Datacomm config should be shown onscreen as a function key type option.

SEP

[Robert Bennett_3]

TERM
environment variable is set by default at login by tset
If the (env)ironment variable is different than stated at login it will need to be changed manually for each session you are in. Using export TERM=(terminal type) on the command line.
TERM=(hp)
Terminal type hp is a standard 80 column by 24 line HP terminal. If your terminal is acting strangely, check the TERM variable. If it is set correctly, execute the tset command - this will reset the terminal characteristics using the terminal type found in the TERM variable.

Or you can change the /.profile file. Go to the last line and add export TERM=(terminal type).

[B. Hulst]

Hi,

Nowadays the universal settings are:

9600,8,N,1 (baud,databits,paritiy,stopbits)

Almost all equipment has this as default.

Regards,
Bob

[Jeff Lightner_1]

Greg,

The responses given tell you how to set baud at the 700/96 itself. Of course this has to agree with what it is set at on the server. That is set by an entry in /etc/inittab which in turn relies on an entry in /etc/gettydefs.

Looking at a couple of Ls in my environment I see /etc/inittab uses the "console" gettydef for the console. Looking at /etc/gettydefs I see the definition of console the same on both:

console # B9600 SANE CLOCAL CS8 ISTRIP IXANY TAB3 HUPCL
# B9600 SANE CLOCAL CS8 ISTRIP IXANY TAB3 HUPCL
#Console Login: #console

So as stated elsewhere this means you should be set to 9600, 8, N, 1 if he left it at the defaults.

If that isn't working and you have another way into the system check the inittab and to be sure it is using the console gettydef.

Remember in the inittab that seeing something like "19200" does not necessarilly 19200 baud but rather the gettydef NAMED 19200. This does contain 19200 baud but doesn't have to since it is just a name. It also sets other things for example it uses 7 bits rather than 8 bits. Doing a man of termio will give you the meanings of things like SANE, PARENB etc... seen in the gettydefs. There is also a man page for gettydefs itself.

Alternatively it occurs on occasion that your terminal goes into a graphics mode. If so a login works but you are getting what appears to be symbols rather than letters. Typing tput rmacs or tput smacs or hitting Ctrl-O or Ctrl-N might help if this is your issue.