NAME

       dcons — dumb console device driver

SYNOPSIS

       To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

             options GDB
             device firewire
             device dcons

       Alternatively,  to  load  the  driver  as  a module at boot time, place the following line in your kernel
       configuration file:

             options GDB

       and in loader.conf(5):

             dcons_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION

       The dcons device is a simple console device which just reads from and writes to an allocated  buffer  for
       input  and output respectively.  It is of no use by itself and it is supposed that the buffer is accessed
       via a bus like firewire(4) or kvm(3) for interaction.

       The buffer consists of 4 channels.  There are 2 ports, one for the console TTY and another is  GDB  port,
       then each port has an input channel and an output channel.

FILES

       /dev/dcons
       /etc/ttys

EXAMPLES

       If  you  want  to  run getty(8) on dcons, insert the following line into ttys(5) and send a HUP signal to
       init(8) using kill(1).

             dcons   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt100   on  secure

       Once the fwohci(4) device is initialized to allow physical  access,  the  buffer  can  be  accessed  from
       another  host  via  a  firewire(4)  bus  using  the  dconschat(8) application.  See dconschat(8) for more
       details.

       If you want to use dcons(4) as a gdb(1) port, add the following line into loader.conf(5):

             dcons_gdb="1"

SEE ALSO

       dcons_crom(4),  ddb(4),  firewire(4),   fwohci(4),   gdb(4),   ttys(5),   conscontrol(8),   dconschat(8),
       fwcontrol(8)

AUTHORS

       Hidetoshi Shimokawa <simokawa@FreeBSD.org>

BUGS

       This driver is currently under development.

Debian                                          January 26, 2008                                        DCONS(4)