blanchet
Guru
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2018
- Messages
- 516
Abstract
To have a lighter Linux virtual machine, you can enable the serial console and then remove the VNC device after the operating system installation with VNC.
But do you know that you can directly run the CentOS 8 installer on the serial console without VNC ?
It is faster because you will not have to enable the serial console after the operating system installation.
Install CentOS 8 with the serial console in bhyve
Open the VM creation wizard
Return to the VM list
Keep open the xterm window while powering on the VM
At the end of the installation
To have a lighter Linux virtual machine, you can enable the serial console and then remove the VNC device after the operating system installation with VNC.
But do you know that you can directly run the CentOS 8 installer on the serial console without VNC ?
It is faster because you will not have to enable the serial console after the operating system installation.
Install CentOS 8 with the serial console in bhyve
Open the VM creation wizard
Code:
1/ Operating System Guest Operating System: Linux Name: my_centos_server Description: centos server in serial mode System clock: Local Boot Method: UEFI [x] Start on Boot [_] Enable VNC 2/ CPU and Memory Virtual CPUs: 1 Memory: 2 GiB 3/ Disks (o) Create new disk Select Disk Type: Virtio zvol location: tank1 Size: 10 GiB 4/ Network Interface Adapter type: VirtIo Mac Address: <autogenerated> Attach NIC: <select you NIC> 5/ Installation Media /mnt/tank1/iso/CentOS-8.1.1911-x86_64-dvd1.iso 6/ Confirm Options SUBMIT
Return to the VM list
- Open COLUMNS menu to display the Com Port of your new virtual machine and note it.
- For example
/dev/nmdm20B
- run xterm , because it interprets neither keys (F1, F2, etc) nor shorcuts unlike gnome-terminal
- connect with SSH to FreeNAS
- from a Windows computer, you can use PuTTY instead of xterm + ssh
- in the FreeNAS shell, connect to the virtual serial port of the virtual machine
- The FreeNAS webUI supports also the serial console, but it is not as reliable as xterm or PuTTY
Code:
freenas# cu -l /dev/nmdm20B
Keep open the xterm window while powering on the VM
- Go to the line Install CentOS Linux 8
- Press e to edit the command line
- Modify the vmlinuz line to replace
quiet
byconsole=ttyS0,115200n8
- Example
Code:
linuxefi /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=CentOS-8-1-1911-x86_64-dvd console=ttyS0,115200n8
- Hit CTRL+X to boot
At the end of the installation
- Power off the VM
- Remove the CDROM device from the VM
- Power on the VM
- GRUB appears and the system boots
- Login as root and enjoy your new CentOS 8 Linux server with a serial console.