The procedure for doing this is described in detail in the FreeBSD Handbook. This is a quick summary.
Check that the kernel configuration file has
flags 0x10
in the config line for the
sio0
device. This signals this device (known
as COM1
in DOS/Windows® or
/dev/ttyd0
in FreeBSD) can be used as a
console. This flag is set on the GENERIC
and
LINT
sample configs, so is likely to be set in
your kernel.
This file should be created containing a single line containing
just “-h
” (minus the quotes). This
tells the FreeBSD boot blocks to use the serial console.
Edit this file and make the following changes.
If you are not going to have any keyboard/video screen on this
server at all, you should find all the lines for
ttyv
devices like
Change the on
to off
. This
will stop login screens being run on the useless video
consoles.
Find the line containing ttyd0
. Change
it from
to
(replacing vt100
with the term type of your
console. The xterms
terminal type might be a good
choice). This allows you to log in to the console port once the
system is running multi-user.
Reboot and off you go!
This, and other documents, can be downloaded from http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
For questions about FreeBSD, read the
documentation before
contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.