[SLL] can't see all boot messages and get to BIOS setup

[Jeremy C. Reed]

A little off-topic ...

I am using a Livingston PortMaster to get to my hardware over serial 
console. I have used these for years.

But I have three new Supermicro systems I am trying to get to so I can 
boot over PXE (which I also have done several times and have experience 
with setting up).

I have two problems:

- can't get to BIOS. I was told to press "DEL" repeatedly. I powercycled 
it many times and pressed "DEL" key repeatedly but never get to a BIOS 
menu. The BIOS settings flashes up but for only maybe less than a second 
(fast enough to write and then overwrite):

                   Phoenix cME FirstBIOS Pro Setup Util
(rest snipped)

A message comes up to press any key for less than a second, but that 
doesn't stop anything.

Then the screen goes blank with just a cursor that doesn't move.

- it won't boot from PXE. I can get to the PXE setup menu by pressing 
CTRL-S and it says it will boot in order defined in BIOS. But I can't get 
to BIOS setup.

It never has errors about booting, and my DHCP server doesn't indicate any 
leases and tcpdump shows other bootp traffic. (I don't know my MAC 
addresses yet to compare.)

I am guessing it is not booting from PXE and is hanging somewhere else. 
But since the console is blank I don't know.

It just sits at a blank console after some initial boot messages come up.
The cursor may be in different places -- maybe where it last wrote or 
overwrote something? I can't move it by typing.

Anyone seen something like that?

Should I be pressing a different key than "DEL"?


(To make it on-topic ... I have using a Linux system to get to the 
terminal server, my BOOTP server is on a Linux system, and I will be 
installing CentOS over the PXE...)