What's New in Managing Terminals and Modems?

This section describes new or changed features for managing terminals and modems in the Solaris release.

SPARC: Coherent Console

Solaris 10 8/07: The coherent console subsystem feature implements a part of the kernel console subsystem to facilitate rendering console output, The coherent console uses the Solaris kernel mechanisms to render console output rather than Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM) interfaces. This reduces the console rendering dependence on the OpenBoot PROM (OBP). The coherent console uses a kernel-resident framebuffer driver to generate console output. The generated console output is more efficient than using OBP rendering. The coherent console also avoids idling CPUs during the SPARC console output and enhances the user experience.

SPARC: Changes to How $TERM Value for Console Is Set

Solaris 10 8/07: The $TERM value is now dynamically derived and depends on the terminal emulator that the console is using. On x86 based systems, the $TERM value is sun-color because the kernel's terminal emulator is always used.

On SPARC based systems the $TERM value is as follows:

sun-color

This value is used for $TERM if the system uses the kernel's terminal emulator.

sun

This value is used for $TERM if the system uses the PROM's terminal emulator.

This change does not impact how the terminal type is set for the serial port. You can still use the svccfg command to modify the $TERM value, as shown in the following example:

# svccfg
svc:> select system/console-login
svc:/system/console-login> setprop ttymon/terminal_type = "xterm"
svc:/system/console-login> exit

ttymon Invocations on the System Console Managed by SMF

Solaris 10: ttymon invocations on the system console are managed by SMF. The addition of properties to the svc:/system/console-login:default service enables you to specify ttymon command arguments with the svccfg command. Note that these properties are specific to ttymon, not generic SMF properties.

Note - You can no longer customize the ttymon invocation in the /etc/inittab file.

For step-by-step instructions on how to specify ttymon command arguments with SMF, see How to Set the ttymon Console Terminal Type.

For a complete overview of SMF, see Chapter 16, Managing Services (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration. For information on the step-by-step procedures that are associated with SMF, see Chapter 17, Managing Services (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.