How do you capture a boot log ? Cut & paste from minicom ?

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1

Dumb question I expect. I have been scrolling up minicom terminal and cut & paste the start of the boot process, then I scroll down and cut & past the remainder.

Is there a log file created on the target filesystem somewhere? Or some way to make minicom log to a file?

Thanks in advance,

-Ed

2

You can get /var/log/dmesg to get the kernel's output from boot
(usually).

Or just use a terminal emulator that allows you to scroll back easily
and select large amounts of multiline text. picocom works well for me
with my virtual terminal set to infinite scrollback.

-Andrew

3

Minicom can capture to a file - use ^A-L
Note: it only saves what is sent to the console *after* you enable it.

You can see the messages on your system in /var/log/messages or
by running the program 'dmesg'

4

Thank you for your reply.

I did not see a file named /var/log/dmesg. But I suppose this could be because I am running a DM8168 today rather than the BeagleBoard-xM?

I guess what I had been doing with minicom was not so dumb.

Thank you for your assistance,

-Ed

5

No, not so dumb, although there is a slightly easier way. Minicom does have a “capture to log file” option: ^A L (listed as “Capture” in the help screen available via ^A Z).

Also, you could try running “dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.log” if there isn’t a dmesg log file automatically available.

Cheers,
Chris

6

Thank you Chris for the minicom log tip! And in the case the system never makes it to the login prompt I guess the terminal clues is all you get without a JTAG debugger or something.

Ahh, that makes more sense about dmesg. It is not a log file but you can redirect the dmesg output to a log file for analysis. I misunderstood Andrew.

I am learning a lot about embedded Linux since I received my BeagleBoard-xm about 3 weeks ago. I largely abandoned embedded development years ago for object oriented PC software development. Embedded Linux is making it fun again and I may have to change my career focus back to embedded again.

-Ed

7

Why not use gtkterm, it's a GUI which is easy to setup and you can save everything that comes up on screen to a file.
I have been using it for probably 16 years.
It's very similar to HyperTerminal for Windows and described as a clone of HyperTerminal.
It's an available package for Fedora and Ubuntu.
For openSUSE I built my own from source.
Regards
Sid.

8

Why not use gtkterm, it’s a GUI which is easy to setup and you can save everything that comes up on screen to a file.
I have been using it for probably 16 years.

Thanks Sid. I will give gtkterm a try

-Ed

9

Ever since I found gtkterm I ditched minicom and kermit. It stops a lot of messing about with command line stuff though I do a lot else via the command line. Regards Sid.