Patent ID: 8010708

Claim:
A method of initializing a serial port in a storage system controller that connects to an external device using the serial port, the method comprising: enabling a serial control mode via a boot operations menu displayed on a host device that is coupled to the storage system controller using a network connection activated during a boot process of the storage system controller, wherein the boot operations menu is displayed in a telnet window that is displayed during a telnet session with the storage system controller; displaying a serial control mode menu on the host device in response to enabling the serial control mode; receiving, from options selected in the serial control mode menu, a plurality of parameter values for the serial port of the storage system controller; initializing the serial port on the storage system controller with the plurality of parameter values during the boot process of the storage system controller by attempting, using a software interface on the host device, a hardware initialization to a universal synchronous asynchronous receiver transmitter (USART) in the serial port; wherein the serial port on the storage system controller is initialized with the plurality of parameter values without completing the boot process of the storage system controller; wherein the plurality of parameter values are received from a user, and wherein the plurality of parameter values include a baud rate, and further wherein receiving the plurality of parameter values includes performing an adaptive baud rate negotiation between the storage system controller and the external device through the serial port, and wherein performing the adaptive baud rate negotiation includes: sending a break key sequence from the external device to the storage system controller; determining an amount of time between a start bit and a stop bit; and obtaining a baud rate based on the amount of time between the start bit and the stop bit; and wherein the method further comprises initializing the serial port on the storage system controller using the at least one serial port parameter value.