I wrote this for CentOS, bujt it should work for FC5:
By
configuring “headless” operating we will be able to manage the firewall via a
cable plugged into the serial port of the firewall. This obviates the need to plug a keyboard and
monitor into it to perform changes. Thus
the term “headless”.
The
/etc/inittab file contains settings that get applied to the Operating Systems
at boot time. There are some changes
that need to be made to these settings.
In order to edit the /etc/inittab file type:
Typing
this command will open the /etc/inittab file for editing.
As
stated earlier the 18th line down is the run level line. Add the
following line to the file:
S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty
9600 linux
This
line sets the Operating System to be able to send boot time information to the
serial port in addition to the console.
After
you have made these changes to the /etc/inittab file press the colon (: ) key
and then type wq to quit vi and save the changes.
The
/etc/securetty sets the controls for which TTY devices that the root account
can log on via. In order for us to be
able to log onto the serial console as root or to be able to su to root we must
add a line to the file. In order to edit
the /etc/secuertty file type:
Typing
this command will open the /etc/secuertty file for editing.
Add
the following line to the end of the file:
ttyS0
This
line sets the Operating System to allow root to log on to the serial port in
addition to the console.
After
you have made these changes to the /etc/securetty file press the colon (: ) key
and then type wq to quit vi and save the
changes.
In
order for boot-time messages to be sent to the console, including the boot
loader information some changes must be made to the configuration file for
it. The boot loader that CentOS uses is
GRUB. As such, the configuration file is
/etc/grub.conf.
The
first change that we must make is to add some lines after the timeout line in
the GRUB configuration file. In order to
edit the /etc/grub.conf file type:
Typing
this command will open the /etc/grub.conf file for editing.
Add
the following two lines after the timeout line in the configuration file:
serial
--unit=0 --speed=9600
terminal
--timeout=5 serial console
Another
change that we must make in the GRUB configuration file is to tell the kernel
to send out all kernel-level messages to the serial port in addition to the
console. That is done by adding the
following line to the end of the kernel line:
console=tty1
console=ttyS0
After
you have made these changes to the /etc/grub.conf file press the colon (: ) key
and then type wq to quit vi and save the
changes.
Once
you have made these changes reboot the system by typing by typing:
The
system will now reboot.
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