DEC3860 mini-USB Console

[Mbl]

Anybody ever connected to a DEC mini-USB Console port?

Looks like I can connect but only get port up and down messages, had no look to fire any commands or so...

Every help is appreciated!

[Patrick M. Hausen]

What operating system are you connecting the USB console to?

"Behind" that console connector is a USB to serial converter. So you get a serial port when you plug it in AND there is driver support for that in your OS. You then need to use a serial terminal program like putty (Windows), cu/minicom (Linux, BSD, Mac OS) to connect to that newly created port.

[Mbl]

It's Win11 with Putty. I can get to bios, I can see all the dmesg messages during the bootup, but once it shows the interfaces - there where usually the OPNsense 0 to 9 menu appears, it stops and I can hit any key without getting to the OPNsense menu or making any console input.
A driver should not be required as the USB maps to COM3 which is fine. I know this worked once but does not for some reasons.

I have followed this guide: https://docs.opnsense.org/hardware/serial_connectivity.html#legacy-uart

Have updated the bios to the latest version: https://docs.opnsense.org/hardware/bios.html#dec800-and-dec3800-series

Also I can change terminal type, console speed, party, stop bits and so on, but still have the same problem....

[Patrick M. Hausen]

System > Settings > Administration > Console is set to "Serial Console"?
And then there was a mention in the release notes once, that you need to disable a certain "legacy" feature ... waitaminute ...

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=27432

In the BIOS: AMD CBS->FCH-UART ->Uart 0 Legacy Options: Disabled
Best make sure to remove the hw.console.uart tunable when this is set.

[Mbl]

System > Settings > Administration > Console is set to "Serial Console"?
And then there was a mention in the release notes once, that you need to disable a certain "legacy" feature ... waitaminute ...

Not 100% sure but I think "Serial Console" is set on my system. At least I have never chnaged it. Thats also the reason I need console access as I have changed some VLANs and have no access to the web gui anymore  ::)

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=27432

In the BIOS: AMD CBS->FCH-UART ->Uart 0 Legacy Options: Disabled
Best make sure to remove the hw.console.uart tunable when this is set.

Yes this I have disabled legacy UART support (see above link)...

[Patrick M. Hausen]

115200, 8N1 I assume is a given. You could try fiddling with the hardware handshake (RTS/CTS) setting. I mean the serial port config in putty. Other than that I am running out of ideas, too.

[Mbl]

115200, 8N1 I assume is a given. You could try fiddling with the hardware handshake (RTS/CTS) setting.

yes have already done that - also have no more ideas...

[Mbl]

May OPNsense staff has an idea how to recover console access - @franco ?

[franco]

Biggest question is what version is running there?


Cheers,
Franco

[Mbl]

This is the latest version 22.4.2

[franco]

You mean 22.4_2 but that version is fine either way. The console works reliably with the included kernel.

Make sure to disable legacy UART in BIOS and remove hw.uart.console tunable from the GUI. UEFI serial console is a bit wonky on FreeBSD but that's no operational concern.


Cheers,
Franco

[franco]

Little more documentation here

https://docs.opnsense.org/hardware/serial_connectivity.html
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/serial_access.html


Cheers,
Franco

[Mbl]

Thanks for your replay @franco, very appreciated.

I have already disabled legacy UART as described in the documentation. Unfortunately as I'm unable to access the GUI / SSH I can't remove hw.uart.console tunable...

During bootup I can follow all the boot messages from console. So console access works in general. But it stops always after the following messages:

Starting syslog_ng.
>>> Invoking start script 'carp'
>>> Invoking start script 'cron'
Starting Cron: OK
>>> Invoking start script 'beep'
Root file system: /dev/gpt/rootfs
Sun May 22 21:45:00 CEST 2022

*** opnsense.domain: OPNsense 22.4_2 (amd64/OpenSSL) ***

XXXXX_VLAN (vlan03) -> v4: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/XXX
XXXXX_VLAN (igb0_vlanXXX) -> v4: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/XXX
XXXXX_VLAN (vlan02) -> v4: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/XXX
WAN_ax1_phy (ax1) ->
WAN_ax1_XXXX (ax1_XXXXX) ->
WAN_igb3_XXXX (igb3) -> v4: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/XXX

HTTPS: SHA256 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
               XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SSH:   SHA256 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (ECDSA)
SSH:   SHA256 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (ED25519)
SSH:   SHA256 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (RSA)

[franco]

It looks like the console was disabled if it's not asking for "root" prompt. Unsure what to do here. SSH should be available according to the hashes as is the GUI but which rules are preventing it from access I don't know.

You could boot a serial image of 22.4 and get into that system by mounting the actual hard disk, but I'm unsure what strategy should be used to restore what.. revert config so GUI/SSH access is there again? Try to unbreak console that looks to be misconfigured?

Begs the question when this was last working.


Cheers,
Franco

[Mbl]

The system was working very well till I changed some VLAN IDs for management and client VLANs view days back (to avoid some conflicts on another system). After this I was unable to access the system either from web and ssh.

I have tried diffenrent setups with old and new VLAN IDs and was not able to regain access on the IP path. Thats why I tried to access it via console to either create a new (blank non VLAN) interface or restore a backup from bevor the changes.

So the easiest would be to regain IP access but also would be happy to connect via console... So assuming console is disabled (which actually should not be the case), is there any hidden trick to enable console during boot up?