> The first issue is vt100 support from a VM console session.

An idea:

In ages past, the 7171 supported a special escape sequence to go into
"transparent" mode, which allowed (almost) raw 7-bit binary data to be
sent over a connection when you needed to do file transfer with Kermit.
I wonder if the same idea could be used here -- the console driver could
send that sequence, and the VM telnet server could drop out of 3270 mode
and start passing raw data, which would probably be good enough to drive
a simpleminded ANSI terminal.  You couldn't do fancy stuff like foreign
character support, but you would be able to do basic repairs -- a real
ANSI terminal is perfectly happy in a 7-bit world. Teach 'stty raw' and
'stty cooked' what to do in that case (set and reset the 'magic
sequence'), and you're done. This would also have the benefit of
allowing Kermit to work properly for CMS users (there are a few
left...8-)

Another idea would be to create a variation of the SYSG system console
device that was automagically in 8-bit passthrough-mode, modify the
Linux console driver to recognize that as /dev/console if present, and
have the VM telnet server map a specific port (other than 23) to a
application solicitor that would create an ldev pointing to that console
device.

> The second primary issue is the lack of a syslinux or the
> ability to boot
> into single user mode.

A IPLable DCSS with the installation system in it solves this problem
nicely. It's no different than finding the process for booting a rescue
CD on any other platform; you just have to prepare it in advance.

-- db

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