Booting a Serial Console on a Debian Installation Disk

[Martin McCormick]

	If one wants to install Debian Linux or use the installation
disk to fix a broken system, you can boot the CDROM and have it send
its console output to one of your serial ports.  I thought I knew the
command because it did work on rare occasions but it wasn't reliable.
I asked around on the Debian-user discussion list and found a slightly
different form of the command than what I had been trying and trying
to use.  If you want to boot the CDROM and, of course, your system is
capable of booting from CDROM, the command to use is:

linux console=ttyS0,9600n81

	Notice I didn't put /dev/ttyS0.  That is because this device
is part of the kernel and you don't really need the /dev designation.

	I tried that command as well as the form it would take for
one's second serial port or ttyS1 and it also worked every time so
you can file that away in your survival kit for future reference.

	Last weekend, I corrupted files in /lib and made my system
unable to boot at all.  That's when you must use a rescue disk if you
ever hope to get it back to health again.