[rescue] Silly NetBSD question

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 01:40:09PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> [ On Monday, November 19, 2001 at 12:56:08 (-0500), Joshua D Boyd wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: [rescue] Silly NetBSD question
> >
> > I did set TERM correctly.  It has been suggested to me that I'm an idiot for
> > trying to use minicom for serial console work, and that I should use C-Kermit
> > instead.  I installed C-Kermit, now I just have to figure out how to use it
> > for a terminal emulator.  
> 
> Hmmm....  C-Kermit is not a terminal emulator -- it's just a
> communications program.
> 
> If you're really using C-Kermit that suggests you're using some other
> kind of terminal or terminal emulator.  Xterm?  What platform?

OK, I don't know the official terminology.  I am using the rxvt terminal 
emulater.  Inside it, I was running the minicom terminal emulator, which was
set to emulate vt102.  After logging into the SS2, I echo $TERM, and it returns
sun.  If I try to use man, it displays things badly (lines don't cleanly roll 
off the bottom of the screen, lines that should be at the top appear in the 
middle, etc.).  Vi does the same thing.  So, I setenv TERM vt100 (I'm using 
the root default csh). Now vi works correctly, but man still doesn't.

So, someone suggested C-Kermit.  I gather that this just takes the serial 
input somehow and passes it to stdio and lets stdio figure out how to display
it?  Meaning that if I use it, instead of setenv TERM vt100, I should perhaps
use setenv TERM xterm.  But, I haven't figured out how to use C-Kermit in this
capacity (admittedly, total time spent with kermit was about 10mins before 
deciding to hit the sack).

> The idea behind the TERM variable is to tell the applications on the
> target host exactly what kind of terminal you're using so that they can
> figure out what keys you are hitting and what codes to send to it to
> move the cursor about and such.  If you're using a PC, Mac, or whatever,
> or some kind of custom video console on a PC-Unix or even a Sun console
> etc., or X11, etc., then you're using a terminal emulator and you need
> to either specify a terminal type explicitly designed for the emulator
> (eg. "xterm"), or figure out what real terminal your emulator emulates
> best and use the type name for the real terminal (eg. "vt220").

I think I kinda understood that, but when there are several layers, things 
get confusing.  For instance, minicom is a terminal emulator running in a 
terminal emulator.

Wait a minute.  That brings an old memory to mind.  I used to do something 
like
top < /dev/tty8 >/dev/tty8 & so that I could have a dedicated top display on a
virtual console.

What about something like cat /dev/ttyS0 to display form the serial port, but 
what would I send to the serial port?  Create a named pipe, cat it to the 
serial port, then open that pipe in emacs or pico?  Perhaps a simple c program 
that echos what I type back out to stdio, then do something like
cat /dev/ttyS0 & 
myecho > /dev/ttyS0

Hmm.  Perhaps I should just dig through what I can find on c-kermit a bit more
before doing such things.


> There's not really very much "fun" about SunOS-4.  It installs nice and
> easy, it's quite small (comparatively), and it has a very good VM (a bit
> faster than all but NetBSD-current), and its native C compiler generates
> quite good code, but other than that it's buggy as can be, even after
> you install all the official and unofficial patches and replace dozens
> of standard system utilities with their modern-day equivalents.

I still have a desire to try NeWs.  My understanding is that it was still there
with SunOS4.  However, I think I'm just going to wait till I have another spare
sun to give it a go, since I want this boot server fast since I now have a 
xyplex on the way, and those seem to need a boot server to operate.


-- 
Joshua D. Boyd