Bug 72957

Summary:	Editing boot args is buggy when using serial console setup
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Viraj Alankar <valankar>
Component:	grub	Assignee:	Jeremy Katz <katzj>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.3
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-08-29 15:58:50 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Viraj Alankar 2002-08-29 14:25:31 UTC

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Description of problem:
When GRUB is configured to use a serial console, booting via a normal VGA
console and trying to edit the boot arguments with 'e' causes corrupt line
editing. It appears that the command line editing has some bugs in this
scenario. For example, on long boot arguments, it sometimes does not accept any
input or overwrites what you type with what is the default.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Add following lines to /etc/grub.conf:

serial --unit=0 --speed=9600
terminal --timeout=10 --dumb serial console

Also comment out splash screen:

#splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

2. Setup some kernel arguments for booting serial, i.e.:

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-5)
   root (hd0,0)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-5 ro root=/dev/sda1 console=tty0 console=ttyS0
   initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-5.img

2. Reboot, press any key at normal console (not serial) when grub prompts for it.

3. Press 'e', select the kernel line, then 'e' again. This drops to command line
editor which becomes corrupt when typing.
	

Actual Results:  Text that is typed in is sometimes completely ignored or
overwritten with current boot arguments.

Expected Results:  Command line editor should provide text editing correctly.

Additional info:

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2002-08-29 15:15:36 UTC

You'll probably have better luck without the --dumb on the terminal line.  That
causes it to just do dumb terminal emulation which isn't going to let you do
everything that the default vt100 emulation allows.  Do things work better then?

Comment 2 Viraj Alankar 2002-08-29 15:58:43 UTC

Yes, taking out --dumb seems to fix the problem. Thanks.