Jetson Orin: No remote kernel console without custom kernel build (netconsole disabled, serial-tegra lacks console support)

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson Systems Jetson Orin Nano
, , , ,
1

We’re deploying Jetson Orin in sealed enclosures where only Ethernet and RS-232 (DB9) are externally accessible, no USB-C Console (ttyTCU0). We need remote kernel console for production diagnostics but both paths are blocked:

1. RS-232 (ttyTHS1) can’t be a kernel console — `serial-tegra` has `.cons = NULL` in its `uart_driver`. `console=ttyTHS1,115200` is silently ignored. The 8250_tegra fallback produces garbled output because it doesn’t call `clk_set_rate()` (Tegra234 UARTs require active clock management).

2. netconsole is disabled — `CONFIG_NETCONSOLE` is `not set`, `CONFIG_NETPOLL` absent. Can’t build as OOT module since netpoll is core networking code. Full kernel rebuild required.

What we tried

  • `console=ttyTHS1,115200` is ignored since there is no `struct console` in serial-tegra
  • `nvidia,tegra20-uart` DTB + 8250_tegra gives us garbled output at all baud rates (clock mismatch!?)
  • `modprobe netconsole` results in module not found
  • OOT build of netconsole.ko is impossible (needs CONFIG_NETPOLL built-in) |

Questions

1. Why is `CONFIG_NETCONSOLE` disabled in stock L4T? It’s a standard kernel feature with zero side effects when unused. A one-line defconfig change would unblock remote diagnostics for all Jetson users.
2. Would NVIDIA consider enabling it in a future release?
3. Is there a reason `serial-tegra` omits `struct console`? The driver already has `tegra_uart_write()`, LSR polling, and `clk_set_rate()` in `tegra_set_baudrate()` — adding polled console output would be ~60 LOC.
4. Is there any supported path to remote kernel console without a custom build?

4

Hi alexander.schnoerch,

Are you using AGX Orin or Orin NX/Nano?
What’s the Jetpack version in use?

Have you tried using ssh through ethernet to log-in to the board?

For this use case, you can customize it according to the following thread.
Orin NX Uart Problem - #7 by KevinFFF

5

Hi KevinFFF,

We are using a Jetson Orin AGX device with Jetpack R36.4.7 installed.

Connecting via ssh and reading the boot logs would of course work, but I also need to deal with the case where the OS/SSH is not booted/started successfully.

Thanks for pointing me to the blog post! This enabled me to read the boot logs via Uart.

6

Good to hear that the thread I shared helps for your case to capture serial console from another UART.
Please note that it will only output log from kernel. (i.e. not like ttyTCU to output log from many firmwares)