5 Linux / Unix Commands For Connecting To The Serial Console

Find out information about your serial ports

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$ dmesg | grep tty
[    0.000000] console [tty0] enabled
[    1.409184] 00:06: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

#1 cu command

The cu command is used to call up another system and act as a dial in terminal. cu command is installed on many Unix like systems including OpenBSD/AIX/Solaris and so on. You can use it as follows:

cu -l /dev/device -s baud-rate-speed

In this example, Im using /dev/ttyS0 with 9600 baud-rate:

cu -l /dev/ttyS0 -s 9600

To exit enter tilde dot (~.).

#2 screen command

Use the screen command as follows:

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$ screen /dev/device baud-rate
$ screen /dev/ttyS0 9600
$ screen /dev/ttySUSB0 9600,cs8

#3 minicom command

minicom command is a communication program which somewhat resembles the shareware program TELIX from old good MS-DOS days. Type minicom to connect:

$ minicom

See [how to install and use minicom][http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/connect-soekris-single-board-computer-using-minicom.html] under Linux operating systems.

#4 putty command

PuTTY is a free and open source gui X based terminal emulator client for the SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols and as a serial console client. It works under Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, MS-Windows and few other operating systems. See [how to configure and use putty for cisco routers][http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/replace-windows-vista-hyperterminal-with-putty.html]:

#5 tip command

The tip command is used as a serial terminal. tip command can be found under AIX/HP-UX/Solairs/*BSD/Linux operating systems. The syntax is:

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tip -9600 device
tip -9600 s0
tip -9600 ttys0

Reference: http://www.cyberciti.biz/hardware/5-linux-unix-commands-for-connecting-to-the-serial-console/