# KVM alternative ? - strange ideea



## da1 (Sep 2, 2009)

Hello guys,

Let's start slow, because what I want is a bit odd.

I have 1 box with FreeBSD-7.2-stable. Hardware is a 478 intel 2.6 Ghz with 1 GB DDR1. runs fine, no problems.

There is the other box... win xp sp3, amd sempron 2800+ socket 754. again, works fine, no problems (only features )

I do not have fizical access to the computers (3 countrys away) and I have no money right now to invest in a KVM.

What I want

I want to connect to the BSD box KVM-like. Of course that is not posible since I have no KVM. 

So I was thinking if maybe it would be possible to connect somehow the BSD box to the Windows box and have some sort of application KVM-like. Basicly I would like to have a VNC-like window with the output of the video card of the BSD box and the win keyboard to act like the local-connected BSD box keyboard

INFO: I connect to the win box through remote desktop.

Now... everyone that I have asked told me that they have absolutly no ideea about this, but there was this guy (a colleague) that told me that (he thinks that) it might be posible with a COM cable connected to the 2 pc's.

so I started google-ing in that direction and stumbled upon the handbook wich explains a bit hot to connect to a COM tty (but no interoperability). 

Question is like this: 
1) if (somehow) I manage to have a tty in windows (similar to ssh maybe? i have no clue here) will that tty be available if the system goes down to single user mode?
2) what if i need BIOS access ?
3) is this (what i want) possible ? - thinking astronomic, nothing is impossible, but coming back to Earth, can it be done (with software)?
4) if not with software, what solution do I have ? what prices....etc

I know... solution = KVM. But a remote IP KVM costs quite a bunch (or maybe I just had bad luck to find the expensive ones. expensive=~8-900 Euros)

any idea is welcomed.

Thx


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## SirDice (Sep 2, 2009)

da1 said:
			
		

> So I was thinking if maybe it would be possible to connect somehow the BSD box to the Windows box and have some sort of application KVM-like. Basicly I would like to have a VNC-like window with the output of the video card of the BSD box and the win keyboard to act like the local-connected BSD box keyboard


Err... Is net/tightvnc or net/vnc vnc-like enough?

Just ssh into the FBSD box and tunnel vnc over it.



> 1) if (somehow) I manage to have a tty in windows (similar to ssh maybe? i have no clue here) will that tty be available if the system goes down to single user mode?


No, for this to work you will need serial console access. See the handbook about this. You can use either PuTTY or HyperTerminal on Windows for this.



> 2) what if i need BIOS access ?


That depends entirely on your mainboard, I know some mainboards allow BIOS access via a serial port.



> 3) is this (what i want) possible ? - thinking astronomic, nothing is impossible, but coming back to Earth, can it be done (with software)?



Serial console for single user mode, ssh for remote work, vnc if you really need a GUI.


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## da1 (Sep 2, 2009)

right, so in the first step a serial cable is the way to go and putty or HyperTerminal on the win box.


handbook time now ...



thx for clarifying this


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## SirDice (Sep 2, 2009)

da1 said:
			
		

> right, so in the first step a serial cable is the way to go and putty or HyperTerminal on the win box.


If you decide to use PuTTY (advised, HT is a piece of crap), do get the latest version. IIRC it wasn't until 0.58 that COM (serial) was available.


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## da1 (Sep 2, 2009)

I will go with putty, but right now i'm tinking (wrote like that on purpose) on the cable issue. HandBook says that for pc's usually it's DB25 or DB-9 ...


It's going to be very interesting to set up the cables (fizically) as I am still not sure on many things of this... cable, settings, windows, etc...

It's going to be a nice learning project (even more now that I am not onsite).

I will yell here for help if I need it.


thx again


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## phoenix (Sep 2, 2009)

Setting up a serial console on FreeBSD is fairly simple.  Here are my notes on how I did it with FreeBSD 6.x:

```
The following will allow you to use the Tyan SMDC hardware and Tyan TSO software to remotely
connect to a FreeBSD box and control it as if you were sitting in front of it. It works at the hardware
level, giving you remote access to the boot sequence, BIOS messages, hardware monitoring, and a serial
console (over TCP/IP).

You'll need to configure the OS to use a serial console in order to see anything once the boot loader
and kernel take over. The following instructions will get things working on FreeBSD:

   1. Edit /boot/loader.conf to enable output to serial and video consoles simultaneously:

          hint.sio.1.flags="0x30" 
          console="comconsole vidconsole" 
          comconsole_speed="19200" 
          boot_multicons="yes" 

   2. Edit /etc/make.conf to set the serial console speed (used when we recompile the boot blocks):

          BOOT_COMCONSOLE_PORT=0x2F8 
          BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED=19200 

   3. Edit /etc/ttys to enable the serial console and set the console speed used:

          ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" vt100 on secure 

   4. Rebuild the boot loader

          cd /usr/src/sys/boot 
          make clean 
          make depend 
          make 
          make install 

   5. Install the new boot blocks

          Note: replace ad4 with the boot device node 
          bsdlabel -B /dev/ad4s1 

   6. Reboot

          shutdown -r now 

   7. Voila! 

All output will now go to the serial console and the video console simultaneously. Once the init process
starts, a separate getty process will be loaded for the serial console. Connecting via the serial
console will display a login screen, same as connecting via the video console, SSH, telnet, etc.
```

That configures things so that all screen output from the time /boot/loader starts until the box is shut-off goes to the serial console.  Then you just connect a serial cable between the two PCs, and use a terminal emulator to open the serial port on the Windows machine.

Access to the BIOS requires serial console redirect support in the BIOS.  Server-class motherboards usually support this, although they may require a special add-in card to do the actual connection.


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## da1 (Sep 2, 2009)

thx phoenix. your notes will most definitely help.

right now I'm looking for a serial-cable in my home-town, kinna hard to find one to be honest, but thx again


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## SirDice (Sep 2, 2009)

If you're looking for one, don't buy a straight one to one cable. You will need a null modem cable. 
If all else fails you can make your own, it's not that hard.


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## Brandybuck (Sep 3, 2009)

Forget VNC, and put a decent X server on your Windows box and use that. XMinG is a good choice.


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## da1 (Sep 3, 2009)

as a cable, yeah, null modem... (handbook)

I dnt use X ... I dnt even have it installed


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