USB-VGA suggestions?

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

On 2017-07-20 18:34, Karl Auer wrote:
> Not me - but I have had experience with using USB-to-serial adapters.

While I appreciate the thought, Karl, I promise you, I know serial: I 
still have the RS-232 pinouts (both nine- and 25-pin) memorized, as well 
as the Procomm keystrokes, which translate nicely to Minicom.  Heck: 
just today, I ordered three USB-to-RJ-45 serial cables for switch and 
router console work.  But that's not gonna cut it for what I want, 
because I'd need to set up the serial in the BIOS, first.

Alas, it *also* occurred to me that my desire was really a fantasy: the 
BIOS, likewise, will almost certainly ignore any USB-VGA adapter I tried 
to use.  Which means, like it or not, in order to get the pesky blades 
to boot, I'll have to plug in to the VGA headers on the motherboards of 
the blades.  Which leaves me still boggling that they didn't have VGA on 
the blades to start with.

Thanks anyway, all...

-Ken


> On Thu, 2017-07-20 at 17:25 -0400, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
>> Hey, all.  I've got the weirdest server I've seen in some time: it's
>> got four (independent) blades, but no video. You can pop the slot
>> off, buy a VGA connector with a cable running to the VGA header, and
>> plug that in... but it's a PITA.  What it *does* have for every
>> blade, though, is USB -- two of 'em.  So if I had a VGA-to-USB
>> adapter, and a keyboard, I'd be golden.  But last time I looked,
>> Linux support for those adapters was kinda questionable.  Has anyone
>> had any good experiences?
> 
> Not me - but I have had experience with using USB-to-serial adapters.
> Linux supports those very well indeed, and Unix has had a serial
> console since God's dog was a puppy. A serial console will give you a
> fully-fledged command line interface. If you really, really want to you
> could run ppp over it and have an X terminal :-)
> 
> Plus a serial console gives you the ability to copy files to and from
> the server, which a VGA screen can't do.
> 
> Google something like "linux boot serial console" and go wild.
> 
> Regards, K.
> 
> PS: No, you don't need to go to eBay looking for 80x25 green screen
> serial terminals :-) Any laptop can do it, though few of them have
> serial ports these days, so you will need another USB-to-serial
> adapter. You will also need a terminal program to run on said laptop.
> If your laptop is running Linux you have minicom or one of a bunch of
> others including kermit. Since Microsoft canned HyperTerminal you will
> need to find another one - RealTerm, TeraTerm and of course puTTY will
> do the job.
> 
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
> http://twitter.com/kauer389
> 
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