Changing console from serial port to vga/kbd

[Phil]

I am using a Pentium board with two serial ports. I need both ports
available to connect to external devices. I would like to move the
system console from COM1 (/tyCo/0) to the vga/keyboard devices. Is
there a simple way to do this? I enabled "#define INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE"
in "config.h" but this did not work. The console messages continued
to go to /tyCo/0. I'm not sure what I'm missing and haven't found
anything in post archives yet that helps.

Phil

[Phil]

Post by Phil
I am using a Pentium board with two serial ports. I need both ports
available to connect to external devices. I would like to move the
system console from COM1 (/tyCo/0) to the vga/keyboard devices. Is
there a simple way to do this? I enabled "#define INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE"
in "config.h" but this did not work. The console messages continued
to go to /tyCo/0. I'm not sure what I'm missing and haven't found
anything in post archives yet that helps.
Phil

I got this one figured out. It has to be done in the kernel
configurator. I had to add INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE in the following
section:

hardware->peripherals->serial->INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE

Once this was enabled, I cleaned and then rebuilt the kernel. It did
not make any difference if the "#define INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE" line was
added in the "config.h" file or not. As long as the kernel is
configured for this, the console goes to vga/kbd.

Phil

[Michael R. Kesti]

Post by Phil

Post by Phil
I am using a Pentium board with two serial ports. I need both ports
available to connect to external devices. I would like to move the
system console from COM1 (/tyCo/0) to the vga/keyboard devices. Is
there a simple way to do this? I enabled "#define INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE"
in "config.h" but this did not work. The console messages continued
to go to /tyCo/0. I'm not sure what I'm missing and haven't found
anything in post archives yet that helps.

I got this one figured out. It has to be done in the kernel
configurator. I had to add INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE in the following
hardware->peripherals->serial->INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE
Once this was enabled, I cleaned and then rebuilt the kernel. It did
not make any difference if the "#define INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE" line was
added in the "config.h" file or not. As long as the kernel is
configured for this, the console goes to vga/kbd.

I saw your original article and figured that you were experiencing the
issue you now report, but you didn't make it clear whether your problem
was with the boot ROM or the VxWorks image (kernel) so I chose to not
respond.

Here's the deal: targets' config.h files are edited "manually" and
determine what gets included in boot images that built using makefiles
in BSP directories that are also edited "manually".

Project files (*.wpj) are edited using Tornado (v5 and older) or Workbench
(V6 and later) and determine what gets included in configurable VxWorks
and downloadable application images. These are built using makefiles that
are created by Tornado/Workbench in project directories.

Configurable VxWorks image projects are based on specific BSPs and do
"inherit" some aspects of a BSP (especially the code in romInit.s), but
because the target is completely reinitialized by the VxWorks image after
it is loaded and executed by the boot ROM, these programs' respective
configurations need not be similar. This allows programmers to strip down
the boot ROM's size by including only those features required to load a
VxWorks image serially, via network, from flash memory, or a disk system.

For completeness: workspace files (*.wks) include one or more project
files to create a group of related projects.

[Phil]

Thanks for the explanation. After reading this I went back and
rebuilt the bootloader to see if the kernel configuration changes
affect it in the same way and they don't. I had to enable "#define
INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE" in "config.h" to force the bootloader console to
route to vga/kbd. Now I have both serial ports freely available for
my devices.

Phil