Question : Accessing the bios of a remote machine via serial console (Debian Sarge)

Hello, I have to mirror servers (HP Proliant DL140 - Debian Sarge distro), wich are cabled as so :

http://www.team-project.net/show_file_pub.php?projet=150&id=33512&key=9gMPq7WQns&size=_medium

They both offer the ability to access the bios setup via a serial cable (through ttyS0)

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Objective
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My plan is to manage to access a server via SSH and remotely modify the bios of the other one via the serial connection between them in case of a failure (so I can manage for example to boot from the CD instead of the HDD)

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Problem
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I can't reach the other server from the ssh console using a getty command :

getty 115200 ttyS0 vt100

But it waits for 10 second and gets back to the prompt with no messages.

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What I had done so far (on bot servers) :
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- Remote Bios is enabled from the Bios
- Serial port is enabled on the Bios and recognized by the system as :
  ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
 - I installed the statserial package to display the serial connector status wich displays this :

statserial /dev/ttyS0

Device: /dev/ttyS0

Signal  Pin  Pin  Direction  Status  Full
Name    (25) (9)  (computer)         Name
-----   ---  ---  ---------  ------  -----
FG       1    -      -           -   Frame Ground
TxD      2    3      out         -   Transmit Data
RxD      3    2      in          -   Receive  Data
RTS      4    7      out         1   Request To Send
CTS      5    8      in          0   Clear To Send
DSR      6    6      in          0   Data Set Ready
GND      7    5      -           -   Signal Ground
DCD      8    1      in          0   Data Carrier Detect
DTR     20    4      out         1   Data Terminal Ready
RI      22    9      in          0   Ring Indicator

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The documentation I used
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http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/
http://docs.hp.com/en/372432-001/372432-001.pdf

What the HP doc says in brief :

"...The purpose of console redirection is to provide the capability to remotely manage a server in a headless environment. Through BIOS Serial Console redirection, you can see POST messages, navigate option ROM (such as ORCA) setup menus, and use RBSU through a serial connection to the server COM port. The local keyboard and monitor are no longer required to set up or configure the system. The remote server setup and configuration can also be performed remotely through the terminal server, iLO Management Processor, or RILOE board. Some OSs support console redirection as well...".

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My questions
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The HP doc says :

"BIOS Serial Console initialization occurs during power-up or system reset, before the first message is displayed on the screen"
Does this mean I can only access the bios from the serial console during power-up or reset ?? Pretty hard to do when your not in front of the machine with a kyyboard and a screen directly connected to the server

About configuration, the doc says on page 19 (Linux Red Hat 7 Serial Console Settings) some stuff about lilo conf wich I do not quite get, I think I miss something here (and I use GRUB not lilo)

Can you help reach the bios ? ;-)

Thanks

Answer : Accessing the bios of a remote machine via serial console (Debian Sarge)

> Does this mean I can only access the bios from the serial console during power-up or reset ??

Yes, and that's true for any x86 flavor of machine.

As far as connecting to the remote serial console you'd want to be using a terminal emulator like minicom.