Re: Console output during boot

02.05.2026 13:42, Doug Hardie wrote:

> I have one server (Raspberry Pi 4) which during boot shows all the hardware configuration,
> but then stops until the Login prompt appears.  The other servers show the startup of each service
> and various other outputs.  There is a 10 minute gap on the one server
> and I would like to see where it is during that process for that time.

Then you may find useful to put the following to /boot/loader.conf:

kern.msgbuf_show_timestamp=1

> I have tried to find differences between the server configurations and haven't found the one
> that controls the startup output.  What controls that?  Thanks,

It's kernel console settings that you can check out in multiuser mode
with "conscontrol" command, in my case:

# conscontrol
Configured: ttyu1,ttyv0
 Available: ttyu1,ttyv0
    Muting: off

This corresponds to another loader.conf knob:

comconsole_port=0x2f8
boot_multicons="YES"
console="comconsole vidconsole"

That is, "primary" console is serial one (COM2 A.K.A. uart1, /dev/cuau1)
and vidconsole is secondary that does not get messages you want.

Use similar settings but change accordingly.
Possible values for the "console" setting are documented in the loader.conf(5)
manual page:

> "comconsole" selects serial console, "vidconsole" selects the video console,
"efi" selects the EFI console etc.

Eugene