#Serial port emulator mac os how to#
#Serial port emulator mac os install#

Now that I know about 'screen' however, I'll probably switch to that, since I prefer to use tools that are native to the platform instead of having to install them.I also use a Keyspan USB serial port adapter, and in case anyone's interested in a quick-start on a convenient way to use kermit to access Cisco console ports, here's the little shell script I use to start kermit with the appropriate settings: #!/opt/local/bin/kermit +set modem type noneset line /dev/tty.KeySerial1set speed 9600set serial 8N1set flow noneset carrier-watch offconnectI saved this script with the name 'keyspan' so I can remember it, make it executable, then just use the command './keyspan' to start kermit with the above settings. One problem I had with my version of 'tip' was that it wouldn't pass 'control-a' characters, which made line editing on a Cisco device less useful. Recently a coworker told me he just uses 'kermit', which is also available via MacPorts, though it, like 'screen', has an imposing looking man page that can make it seem unapproachable at first. I had been using a version of 'tip' that I built from the BSD sources. I've found zterm to be a bit buggy in OSX, and minicomm to be a bit obtuse and ugly. Hope this hint helps someone out there, not that you need to use it every day, but it can be a lifesaver just that once. You'll be prompted to quit type y and you'll be back at your regular shell.

For the sake of putting it all together, here it is: #! /bin/sh/usr/libexec/serial/SerialTerminalSupport stopscreen /dev/cu.serialTo quit cleanly out of screen, type Control-A followed by Control.

I wrote a simple shell script to correctly launch screen. Simply stop SerialTerminalSupport and launch screen with the above command. To verify that the change was correct, you can check info on /dev/cu.serial with: stty -f /dev/cu.serialIf the first line says speed 9600 baud, you are good to go. Comment out the three lines beginning with: serial.57600|serial db9 port:Save the file and reboot. Open that file up in your favorite editor and do a search for Xserve. The magic file to change to fix this problem is /etc/gettytab. It turns out that by default, OS X Server sets the baud rate of the serial port to 57600, which is too fast for the Cisco console port. I see bits and pieces of the Cisco's console prompt in my Terminal window, but the screen session keeps sending garbage - to the point where I'd have to close the Terminal window and issue a kill command to let go of /dev/cu.serial and the screen session. Thinking that was all it took, I stopped the SerialTerminalSupport service with this command (run all these commands as superuser): /usr/libexec/serial/SerialTerminalSupport stopAnd tried to launch the screen program to open a connection via the serial port with screen /dev/cu.serial. The syntax for launching it remains the same, though, just the location has changed. Leopard Server moved the SerialTerminalSupport shell script to /usr В» libexec В» serial. Through some digging, I found the solution to the problem and can now access the router via the serial port at any time, even from my iPhone (through Terminal, of course)!

Previous hints targeted at Tiger Server and below, however, do not work any more as the serial support files are no longer found in /System В» Library В» StartupItems/.

#Serial port emulator mac os how to#

Having a pressing need to access a Cisco router via the console cable, and not having a PC with a serial port laying around anywhere, I decided to look into how to access the serial port on an Xserve that's running Leopard Server.