1.\" $NetBSD: pcweasel.4,v 1.3 2001/09/11 00:08:29 wiz Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Zembu Labs, Inc. 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Author: Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@zembu.com> 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 17.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 18.\" This product includes software developed by Zembu Labs, Inc. 19.\" 4. Neither the name of Zembu Labs nor the names of its employees may 20.\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 21.\" without specific prior written permission. 22.\" 23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ZEMBU LABS, INC. ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS 24.\" OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WAR- 25.\" RANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DIS- 26.\" CLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ZEMBU LABS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 27.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT 28.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, 29.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY 30.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT 31.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF 32.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.Dd October 19, 2000 35.Dt PCWEASEL 4 36.Os 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm pcweasel 39.Nd Support for the PC-Weasel serial console board 40.Sh SYNOPSIS 41.Cd "pseudo-device pcweasel" 42.Pp 43Note that the appropriate display device must also be enabled. See 44.Xr pcdisplay 4 45for more information. 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47The PC-Weasel is a serial console board for use primarily on 48Intel-based PC-class systems. It addresses a problem that 49nearly everyone who has deployed a PC-class server has experienced: 50the total lack of remote management capability on PC-class hardware. 51.Pp 52In addition to serial console support, the PC-Weasel provides the 53ability to remotely reset the system (by means of a hardware reset 54signal), and provides a watchdog timer function. 55.Pp 56The PC-Weasel works by emulating the original IBM Monochrome 57Display Adapter (MDA). Writes to the display's character 58cells are translated into ANSI terminal sequences which are 59then sent out the PC-Weasel's serial port. Incoming characters 60are translated into PC keyboard scan codes and then fed (by means 61of a cable) into the system's keyboard controller. The system 62believes it is using a display console. This is particularly 63important in the event that one needs access to BIOS configuration 64menus. 65.Pp 66The PC-Weasel also includes a ST16550 serial port, which may 67be configured as any one of the system's serial ports. Typical 68usage is to configure the port as 69.Em com0 70at ISA I/O address 0x3f8. When the PC-Weasel detects activity 71on the ST16550, the serial port is automatically connected to 72the ST16550 so that the serial port may be used as normal. When 73the PC-Weasel detects activity on the internal UART used for MDA 74emulation, the serial port is automatically reconnected to the 75emulation UART. This allows the boot program and kernel to be 76configured to use the serial port directly (which is more efficient 77than using the MDA emulation mode), yet allows the MDA emulation 78to be reestablished as soon as the kernel loses control of the 79system. 80.Pp 81The 82.Nm 83driver provides support for the additional features present on 84the PC-Weasel. At the moment, this includes support for the 85watchdog timer function. Use of the 86.Nm 87driver is not required in order for the system to function with 88a PC-Weasel installed so long as only the MDA emulation and 89ST16550 serial port functionality is required. 90.Sh SEE ALSO 91.Xr pcdisplay 4 , 92.Xr wdogctl 8 93.Sh HISTORY 94The 95.Nm 96driver first appeared in 97.Nx 1.5.1 . 98.Sh AUTHORS 99The PC-Weasel was invented by Herb Peyerl and Jonathan Levine 100at Canada Connect Corporation. It is now produced by Middle 101Digital, Inc., http://www.realweasel.com/ 102.Pp 103The 104.Nm 105driver was written by 106.An Jason R. Thorpe 107.Aq thorpej@zembu.com , 108and contributed by Zembu Labs, Inc. 109Herb Peyerl of Middle Digital, Inc. 110provided several firmware updates during the 111development of the driver. 112