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When I am using the Grub CLI via IPMI sol I am unable to use the arrow keys, as well as some keys such as delete. What happens when I press the Left key I get random 'D' characters appearing, even though it does move the cursor left when the D does not shift. For the Right key I get the 'C' character at times. I realize that "^[[C" and "^[[D", are the codes for just the left/right arrow keys, so its getting transmitted correctly, but not read correctly at times.

I believe that my baud rate is fine, as I can read the screen during POST, in the BIOS, and GRUB, screens, as well as within Linux. This problem does not appear when entering text into the BIOS menus or Linux prompt. I have attempted multiple baud rates set via the BIOS and the ipmitool sol set violotile-bit-rate, but the problem seems to continue with any baud rate.

I can type the following characters without problems: a through z, upper and lower case. 1234567890-= ~!@#$%^&*()_+ []\;',./ {}|:"<>?

My thoughts on possible fixes are, that I don't know the full process for:

Grub has a separate baud rate I need to try?

The Grub 'term' listed in terminfo needs to be changed?

Use Grub setkey for the left/right keys?

TaylorSanchez
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  • What is your grub configuration for [GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Booting_from_a_serial_console)? The speed and connection parameters to use should be specified in it. – DerfK Dec 09 '14 at 17:47
  • I'm having trouble finding the corresponding file on my system, it is SLES 10. /etc/default/grub doesn't exist, should I create it and add the config manually? – TaylorSanchez Dec 09 '14 at 18:29
  • Looks like it might be a SLES 10 bug. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/537849 http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/wmeLDemzu42lVeVzaoW8 – TaylorSanchez Dec 09 '14 at 18:32
  • I just manually added serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1, but it did not seem to help. I also tried other baud rates. – TaylorSanchez Dec 09 '14 at 20:08

2 Answers2

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I had exactly the same problem as you but finally I realized we don't need Up arrow and Down arrow to navigate. See the comment at the bottom of the GRUB screen:

      Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.          
      Press enter to boot the selected OS, `e' to edit the commands       
      before booting or `c' for a command-line. ESC to return             
      previous menu.

It literally means ^ and V. So by using this, I don't need the arrows.

Paul
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Tomô
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You would try this grub> terminal_input serial; terminal_output serial It may solve your issue.

Gebaini Hong
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    This needs a lot more explanation. – Sven May 10 '19 at 08:20
  • I'm sure that serial configuration such as baud rate/stop bit/control flow etc. I still see weird characters when press arrow keys. I check the official document about grub tool. No direct answer. putty/SecureCrt is used by my test on arrow keys. I don't promise it working for your test. but this is very simple command and take minutes to check. – Gebaini Hong May 21 '19 at 01:48