Serial console
We suggest configuring a serial console for your virtual server. We find this is a more convenient way to access your server than VNC for the typical occasional use needed after initial installation.
Included below are examples for configuring grub and linux consoles, if you need the settings for anything else, these are as follows:
Baudrate/speed: 115200
Word length/byte: 8
Parity: No
Stop bits: 1
Configure grub and linux
In /etc/default/grub, add or change the following settings.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"
GRUB_TERMINAL=serial
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200"
Now run the command update-grub to build a new grub configuration
file.
These lines are sufficient to tell both grub (the bootloader) and the linux kernel itself to use the serial port.
Run getty on the serial
To enable you to log in on the serial console, you will need to run a getty process on it. Most Linux distros now use systemd, which will automatically start a getty on the serial ports specified in the console= paramater earlier.
If you need to manually enable a getty, you can run:
systemctl enable serial-getty@ttyS0
systemctl start serial-getty@ttyS0
On other systems, you may need to edit /etc/inittab or similar.
Connect to the console
We are currently upgrading our virtual server hosts to support a web-based serial client through our control panel, so the method you use to access your serial console will depend on whether the host your server runs on has been upgraded yet.
On hosts supporting web serial
You will see a link for "Web console" in our control panel. If you use this link, you will be able to access the serial console in your browser.
On older hosts via admin shell
On hosts that have not been upgraded yet, you can access the serial console through the admin shell.