Careful using cu (if it even exists on modern linux distros). IIRC, cu doesn't do any handling of the modem and flow control lines, so you are at the mercy of whatever the defaults are for whichever serial port device file you are using.
Kermit would be the better option. Kermit has commands for turning off hardware and software flow control. Have mercy! I'd forgotten about the days of cu and uucp. I remember my phone bills from using a 2400 baud modem to connect my 286 Microport/AT unix box to a friend's company's unix server to transfer email and a couple of usenet groups. And serial ports -trying to interface serial devices was a level of hell that even Dante never envisioned. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Monday, December 02, 2013 8:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] bootable cd/usb os to check serial port 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
