On Thursday, 09/28/2006 at 08:17 MST, Brandon Darbro
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> You know, linux can use serial ports as a console device...  So why
> hasn't IBM come up with a virtual serial port type of console system to
> use instead?  Something like having the console on /dev/ttyS0, and that
> via some z/VM magic, is available on an IP as a port number.  Telnet to
> the port, and Linux's getty takes it from there.  Or better yet, through
> some z/VM magic, the serial ports could be mapped to another Linux
> host's serial ports, say one set up as a console appliance... Then that
> appliance could be configured to allow access to them in a variety of
> ways, whether it be by port numbers, account names, ssh key, whatever.
>
> I've been imagining this for a long time now, and just wondered why IBM
> never did it.

IBM *has* been imagining this for a long time, too.  The good thing is
that the cold compresses have been effective and the migraines don't occur
as often now as they used to....

The problem has to do with block 3270 vs. serial NVT mode.  You would
enter the system in line mode and switch to 3270 as usual to get a VM logo
and logon, then, by some miracle TBD, switch back to line mode (emulators
aren't so good at this, btw).

And then there's the whole ASCII/EBCDIC/ASCII translation thing.  You
really want a "passthru mode" LDEV.  Unless you're connecting to an EBCDIC
guest, of course.  [The light is hurting my eyes now...I have to go lay
down.]

Alan Altmark
z/VM Development
IBM Endicott

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