Question about serial console

[DoctorDan]

Hello,
When I first installed openSense a few years ago, my serial console showed the same menu that I get if I ssh into the box.

I just tried to apply the latest update via the GUI  and it didn't go well. When the system rebooted the serial console showed that it was attempting to run the upgrade again, and again, and again. While it was doing this, occasionally, the menu would display but then scroll away as all the the reinstall activity pushed it off the screen.

I tried interrupting the boot with esc and eventually got into the UEFI setup which appeared OK. So, I thought to start a fresh install and used the restore-backup option but could never get the fresh version on the usb flash drive to boot.

After thrashing around I was somehow able to get it to boot so that I could access the WebGUI again and retried the upgrade which finally worked.

That leaves me with one question. When I connect a serial console I see all of the system activity messages scrolling on the screen but I have not figured out how to either suppress those messages or interrupt them so I get the test menu and actually use it?

I would appreciate any help/pointers that would help me to understand the serial console behavior and how to actually get the menu to a point where I could used it.

Thank you

[cookiemonster]

Console is setup in System > Settings > Administration.
But no need to change anything there if your console works.
The behaviour sounds like normal messages during boot. Once the system has initialised and gone into multiuser mode, then the menu should be visible and normally you can't stop the messages up until that point.
It is possible sometimes that some message appears in that buffer later. Ctrl+c could be used to get back to prompt.