#24 Support for the ASCII system console?

[Dr. Werner Fink]

Is there any way to support the ASCII system console (#cp q sysascii) ... currently only the web interface exists but this is very sluggish and functions keys are captured by the browser. Beside this it would be nice to have a direct shell prompt on the /dev/ttysclp0

[Paul Mattes]

I don't know what the ASCII system console is. Can you point me at some documentation?

[Dr. Werner Fink]

Here what I know and use

Integrated ASCII Console

I wonder if it is possible to connect direct to z/VM or if the HMC is mandatory

[Paul Mattes]

I'm unlikely to absorb enough of this document soon to make sense of whether new x3270 functionality might be required. From my superficial reading, it appears that you can set up either a 3270 terminal or an ssh session as the console, which would not require any emulator changes.

But that is only from a superficial reading. :-(

[Dr. Werner Fink]

The aim is to have a system console which can be used direct with a shell at boot time means without having network access to the choosen linux instance (no network no ssh). Modern s390x linux systems can be configured to use dev 4/65 aka ttyS1 as ASCII system console:

localhost:~ # cat /proc/cmdline
root=UUID=fab811db-a953-413f-87e4-0becb6dfbc62 hvc_iucv=8 TERM=ibm327x con3215_drop=y conmode=3270 console=ttyS1 console=ttyS0 mitigations=auto security=apparmor crashkernel=201M
localhost:~ # ls -l /dev/ttysclp0
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 65 May 20 16:27 /dev/ttysclp0
localhost:~ # ls -l /dev/3270/
total 0
crw--w---- 1 root tty  227, 1 May 23 14:59 tty1
crw------- 1 root root 228, 0 Apr 30 18:50 tub
crw------- 1 root root 228, 1 Apr 30 18:50 tub1
localhost:~ # 

the ttyS0 would be the 3215 console if choosen conmode=3215. Nevertheless it is easier to use e.g. vim on the ASCII system console then on a 3270 console. Meanwhile I've detected that the new terminfo entry sclp can be used also on 3270
but without key defintions

[Paul Mattes]

I still don't understand all of the plumbing here, but I'll go back to basics. The purpose of x3270 is to emulate a 3270 terminal or a TELNET Network Virtual Terminal over a network connection (a socket). It can also connect to an arbitrary interactive local process via a pty.

If you want it to do something other than those two, you will need to completely explain to me what it is you want it to do instead, in particular what sort of communications protocol it is supposed to use to talk to the other end, whatever it is.