boot loader I/O through ethernet

[Olivier Nicole]

Hi,

> More and more systems are made without serial ports these days. This means I
> 
> can't access the loader prompt on FreeBSD without a monitor and keyboard,
> which
> is an annoyance. So my question is, is there a way to channel input and
> output of
> the loader through LAN / Ethernet by software only and somehow receiving it
> on the
> other side? Thanks in advance.

I may be wrong but...

I think that depends on the hardware (and the BIOS), not on the
specific OS that you are using.

The loader is in charge of loading the OS, it is not possible to
launch a redirection program at the loader stage.

Any plateform that do not offer PS/2 port (but I expet them to offer
USB port anyway) will offer some kind of keayboard/screen redirection
(on serial, ethernet...)

Bests,

olivier