On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 6:24 PM, Jesse Rink
<[email protected]> wrote:
> If I can find a bootable USB/CD distro that has a putty-like or
> hyperterm-like program, I can at least determine if the problem with the
> Serial Port is VMWare related or not.
Well, technically speaking, the Linux console is a VT102 terminal
emulator. So is xterm (and the various xterm replacements). All you
need to do is connect the serial port to the terminal you already
have. You can do that with the cu(1) command, e.g.:
cu -l /dev/ttyS0 -s 9600
I'm not sure which live CDs include cu(1), if any. It's technically
part of the UUCP subsystem, and the Johnny-come-lately people building
Linux distros these days might not realize that still has uses.
Other options include:
Minicom, which is a Telix clone. If you ever used the DOS version
of Telix you'll be right at home. It's not GUI, but then, neither is
a VT-102. It's included with SysRescueCd, and several others.
If you want GUI, grab the latest Ubuntu live CD, boot that, and
install either Seyon or PuTTY (PuTTY is available for Linux). You can
install packages into RAM on Ubuntu.
I've also used the following in the past to turn an old laptop into
a serial terminal:
http://www.asashi.net/pages/pitux.html
It's a floppy disk that boots into Minicom.
-- Ben
