Unable to connect to a BMC Serial Console

[Jeremy Kerr]

Hi Shubh,

> TCS Confidential

Really? :)

> I am new to OpenBMC and I need some help about how to access the BMC
> console which I am not able to, after many tries.

Just to confirm - you're referring to the console for the BMC system
itself, right? As distinct from the host serial.

> Currently, I have connected my Host Server (i.e., Thinkstation P510 –
> Intel X86-64 CPU installed with OS: Ubuntu 18.04)
> with Intel Server Board S2600GZ (OS :Ubuntu 14) which has a BMC chip
> using aUSB-TTL Serial console cable 
> (“xcluma Usb To Ttl Serial Cable Debugger For Raspberry Pi Beaglebone
> Cubietruck”.)
> The minicom is not showing me any prompt & it’s paused; nothing is
> going ahead.

A few things to check:

 - Where have you attached to the TTL signals? Are you sure that's a 
   BMC serial port?
 - What are you expecting to see there? The BMC might only be 
   outputting console data during boot.
 - Are you using the correct baud rate? (since there should be 
   activity on the TX line during boot, you can use this to find the 
   TX line and set your baud rate)

I'm not familiar with the S2600GZ, but I have done a bit of OpenBMC
development using a S2600STB platform, which may be similar. In that
case, slides 25 and 28 of this might help:

http://jk.ozlabs.org/docs/lca2021/lca2021%20-%20Server%20platforms%20-%20Jeremy%20Kerr.pdf

Otherwise, maybe Intel folks here can provide better connection details
for the GZ.

Cheers,


Jeremy