It turns out that a defective and counterfeit Prolific PL2303 was at play
(more information here: http://goo.gl/yoMgof).  Whether the latter feeds
into the former is an open question, but it most certainly is a counterfeit
given the cut-section images!

I had borrowed one friends PL2303 and swapped it with another, and
everything works perfectly.

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 2:41 AM Paul Bartell <[email protected]> wrote:

> It really sounds like a baud rate mismatch. Try a few other standard ones
> and see what happens there? (9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200).
>
> It sounds like you might have local echo enabled on your openbsd terminal
> emulator. That's why the terminal might appear to be read/write instead of
> just read.
>
> A second step would be to test the null modem adaptor with two serial
> ports connected together. You should see characters typed into one of the
> ports show up on the other.
> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 1:30 PM Matt T. Proud ⚔ <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Answers inline:
>>
>> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 10:13 PM ED Fochler <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The long list of repeated characters matches reality well enough that I
>>> would suspect a baud mismatch.  Try 9600 or 38400 and see what you get.
>>>
>>
>> Just did.  Same story, but different garbage patterns.  FWIW, the
>> terminal programs act "read-only" on Mac OS but appear act both read-write
>> from OpenBSD.  This is to say, I see acknowledgement of my key presses from
>> terminal in OpenBSD only.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Can you verify your USB + null modem against any known-good equipment?
>>
>>
>> Sadly I have no other equipment to test it with.  I suspect I have a
>> traditional RS-232 port at my office, so I will try my null modem with that
>> one.
>>
>>
>>> I use the keyspan USA-19HS.  The serial adapters are finicky, and you
>>> certainly could have a bad one.
>>>
>>
>> Good to know.  IIRC, that one uses FTDI chipset, which could be
>> problematic from an OpenBSD host.  I just put in an order for one to
>> experiment with.
>>
>> Thank you for the prompt reply,
>>
>> Matt
>>
>>
>>>
>>>         ED.
>>>
>>> > On 2015, May 11, at 3:35 PM, Matt T. Proud ⚔ <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Hi all,
>>> >
>>> > I am writing to inquire if you have any tips into the following
>>> predicament:
>>> >
>>> > I have a brand-new 6501 that I received from Soekris Europe.  I just
>>> plugged in the null modem cable, added a Prolific PL2303 serial-to-USB
>>> adapter, connected to the Soekris, setup the terminal (19200; 8-bit data;
>>> no parity; 1 stop-bit; flow-control disabled), and booted the device.
>>> >
>>> > To my dismay, I get garbage over the terminal.  I have tried GNU
>>> Screen and Serial.  The PL2303 offers /dev/cu.usbserial and
>>> /dev/tty.usbserial, both of which I have tried.  I have also cycled Screen
>>> and Serial through each of the supported bauds.
>>> >
>>> > I had been planning on installing OpenBSD to the host (am familiar
>>> with the 9600 baud reset I need to do) connected to a Mac OS X host
>>> (Yosemite), but I couldn't even see an intelligible boot screen to reset
>>> the the baud in the ComBIOS (CTRL+P).
>>> >
>>> > This screenshot will give you an idea of what I am getting at the
>>> factory connection settings: http://imgur.com/EucjEFn.
>>> >
>>> > I also, FWIW, setup OpenBSD on VirtualBox and used USB passthrough to
>>> speak to the Soekris.  Same garbage: http://imgur.com/iPmKqnY.
>>> >
>>> > Any ideas?  What should my next steps be?  Is there some sort of a
>>> factory reset I can do?  Could my unit be defective?  As I mentioned, I
>>> have not been able to set any settings with the device.  How likely is it
>>> that the Prolific PL2303 that I am using is faulty?
>>> >
>>> > Kindest regards,
>>> >
>>> > Matt
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > Soekris-tech mailing list
>>> > [email protected]
>>> > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>>
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>>>
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>
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