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                              Terminal insanity

Smirk is preparing to set up a network presence in Charlotte, North Carolina
[1] and this week I have to configure a router, a management server and some
managed power strips. To help manage some of the equipment (like the router
and managed power strips) Smirk purchased a terminal server.

Now, when I hear the term “terminal server” I picture in my mind a small box
like device with one network port on one side, and a bunch of serial ports on
the other side. A person can then log into the “terminal server” from the
network and access any serial device hooked up to it. Conversely, someone can
use a serial device to access the network. Sure, there might be some
configuration settings to be made on the “terminal server” but pretty much,
you plug devices into it, and that's that.

The unit Smirk got, however, resembles a “terminal server” in that yes, it
has a network port on one side, and a bunch of serial ports on the other side
(said serial ports being RJ45 with their own special wiring—fortunately the
manual came with wiring diagrams but I was stuck talking to the device with
some scissors, a bit of wire and a paper clip [2], but I digress) but there
any simularity ends.

The thing comes with drivers.

As in, to use this external network based device I need to install special
device drivers on my workstation before I can use it. For Linux, that
involved installing the Linux kernel sources (which was a major project in
and of itself no thanks to the package manager yum) and compiling the driver
(which was a major project in and of itself no thanks to the
incompatibilities of various versions of RPM (Redhat Package Manager)),
realize that yes indeed, it is a Linux kernel module which promptly caused my
machine to die on the spot.

The computer didn't freeze. It didn't kernel panic. The screen went black and
that's all she wrote.

Upon reading further, this “terminal server” uses this “driver” to make the
serial ports appear as if they were physically part of the computer, which is
not like any “terminal server” I ever had to deal with. Smirk is sending the
unit back as it's not what we want.

So instead, I'm bringing the terminal server I have and using that.

What?

Doesn't everybody have an old terminal server they aren't using anymore?

Okay, maybe Mark …

[1] http://www.charmeck.nc.us/
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/01/31.2

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