Situation: GELI disk encryption has been automatically set up by 10.2 installer. Therefore, geom_eli_passphrase_prompt ist set to true in /boot/loader.conf to show the new "early" pre-kernel GELI prompt ("GELI passphrase:"). However, when a serial comconsole is set up and the system is operated via serial console, the pre-kernel GELI passphrase prompt does not recognize any character input and therefore cannot be used to unlock the disk(s). The serial console is configured via loader.conf: boot_multicons="YES" boot_serial="YES" console="comconsole,vidconsole" Direct input on video console works, so does any subsequent serial input after the GELI prompt. Current workaround via serial is to disable geom_eli_passphrase_prompt in order to unlock the disk(s) when prompted after the kernel was loaded.
Thy this loader.conf snippet instead: # Enable both consoles console="vidconsole,comconsole" # Set baudrate comconsole_speed="115200" # Set serial port # ttyu0 / COM1: 0x3F8 (default) # ttyu1 / COM2: 0x2F8 # ttyu2 / COM3: 0x3E8 # ttyu3 / COM4: 0x2E8 comconsole_port="0x3E8"
(In reply to Jan Bramkamp from comment #1) Jan, thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, your suggested parameters do not solve the problem. I am not sure if it is a problem of the serial connection itself (regarding speed or port), at least I can see the bootstrap loader output, the "GELI Passphrase:" etc. The connection also works (sort of) bi-directional, because I can use boot options in beastie loader. However, e.g. reboot only works when pressing "4<Enter>", vs. only "4" on the direct console. Interesting fact regarding the animated pre-kernel GELI prompt: On the direct console, each keystroke animates the bar (/-\|). Via serial, characters do not produce this animation, but only <Enter> does. Is this a hint? The old/late (post-kernel load) GELI per-disk prompt can be used via serial without problems.
Has this ever been resolved?
It's working for me with IPMI serial over LAN, but I haven't used a real serial port for GELI in a while and a lot has changed since FreeBSD 10.2: * full UEFI support * GELI support in the old Forth based bootloader (not just an early prompt) * Reimplementation of the bootloader in Lua (and C) I think this bug report has been overcome by events, but similar problems are probably lurking in the shadows.
Quarterly reminder that this can be closed as Overcome by Events ;)