Redirect FreeBSD Console To A Serial Port for KVM Virsh - How to do it

• support
• Server Management Service

This article covers how to redirect FreeBSD in KVM to the serial port.

FreeBSD does support a dumb terminal on a serial port as a console.

This is useful for quick login or debug guest system problem without using ssh. 

1. First, login as root using ssh to your guest operating systems:

$ ssh ibmimedia@freebsd.ibmimedia.com

su -

2. Edit /boot/loader.conf, enter:

# vi /boot/loader.conf

3. Append the following entry:

console="comconsole"

4. Save and close the file. Edit /etc/ttys, enter:

# vi /etc/ttys

5. Find the line that read as follows:

ttyd0  "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   dialup  off secure

6. Update it as follows:

ttyd0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt100   on secure

7. Save and close the file. Reboot the guest, enter:

# reboot

8. After reboot, you can connect to FreeBSD guest as follows from host (first guest the list of running guest operating systems):

# virsh list

Sample outputs:

 Id Name                 State

----------------------------------

  3 ographics            running

  4 freebsd              running

9. Now, connect to Freebsd guest, enter:

virsh console 4

OR

virsh console freebsd

Explore:

• virsh serial console
• virt manager serial port
• kvm serial port passthrough
• kvm serial console
• virsh console
• starting serial terminal on interface serial0
• qemu serial port passthrough
• virt install serial console
• FREEBSD
• KVM