Linux serial port terminal emulator

Serial Terminal Program Rundown for Linux

I figured I’d give a rundown of serial terminals I regularly use on Linux to access consoles on embedded boards through a serial port. I tend to favor both Putty (runs on Windows and Linux) and screen, but a couple others are listed here as well.

Putty

This is a GUI that’s pretty feature rich. It can also be used for SSH and telnet.

sudo apt-get install putty

This will bring up the putty GUI an you can then select serial, enter the device path «/dev/ttyUSB0», and enter the baudrate.

screen

This is a console based program that’s not easy to use for the beginner, but it’s very powerful.

sudo apt-get install screen

minicom

This is a console based program that’s tried and true, but not easy to use for the beginner.

sudo apt-get install minicom

You can then follow the menu options to configure the serial port and get on your way.

picocom

sudo apt-get install picocom

picocom -b 115200 -r -l /dev/ttyUSB0

cutecom

This is a GUI that’s pretty bare bones.

sudo apt-get install cutecom

Now, you can use the GUI to configure and open the serial port device.

Have a program you prefer that’s not listed? Put it in the comments.

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Working with the serial console

An Arch Linux machine can be configured for connections via the serial console port, which enables administration of a machine even if it has no keyboard, mouse, monitor, or network attached to it.

Installation of Arch Linux is possible via the serial console as well.

A basic environment for this scenario is two machines connected using a serial cable (9-pin connector cable). The administering machine can be any Unix/Linux or Windows machine with a terminal emulator program (PuTTY or Minicom, for example).

The configuration instructions below will enable boot loader menu selection, boot messages, and terminal forwarding to the serial console.

Configure console access on the target machine

Boot loader

GRUB

When using GRUB with a generated grub.cfg , edit /etc/default/grub and enable serial input and output support:

. GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="console serial" . GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm serial" .

Next add the GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND variable and set the options for the serial connection. For COM1 ( /dev/ttyS0 ) with baud rate of 115200 bit/s:

. GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit=0 --speed=115200"

Read GRUB’s manual on Using GRUB via a serial line and the serial command for detailed explanation of the available options.

GRUB Legacy

Edit the GRUB Legacy configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst and add these lines to the general area of the configuration:

serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 terminal --timeout=5 serial console

Note: When the terminal —timeout=5 serial console line is added to your menu.lst , your boot sequence will now show a series of Press any key to continue messages. If no key is pressed, the boot menu will appear on whichever (serial or console) appears first in the terminal configuration line.

rEFInd

rEFInd supports serial console only in text mode. Edit refind.conf and uncomment textonly .

Syslinux

To enable serial console in Syslinux, edit syslinux.cfg and add SERIAL as the first directive in the configuration file.

For COM1 ( /dev/ttyS0 ) with baud rate of 115200 bit/s:

The serial parameters are hardcoded to 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.[1]. Read Syslinux Wiki:Config#SERIAL for the directive’s options.

Kernel

Kernel’s output can be sent to serial console by setting the console= kernel parameter. The last specified console= will be set as /dev/console .

console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200

getty

At boot, systemd-getty-generator(8) will start a getty instance for each console specified in the kernel command line.

If you have not configured console= in kernel command line start serial-getty@device.service . For /dev/ttyS0 (COM1) that would be serial-getty@ttyS0.service . Enable the service to start it at boot.

Unless specified otherwise in the kernel command line, getty will be expecting 38400 bit/s baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit-times.

Making Connections

Connect using a terminal emulator program

Note: Before making a connection, it is recommended to add yourself to the uucp user group. Otherwise you will need root’s permission to make a connection.

Perform these steps on the machine used to connect the remote console.

dterm

dterm AUR is a tiny serial communication program. If you invoke it without parameters, it will connect to /dev/ttyS0 at 9600 baud by default. The following example connect to /dev/ttyS0 at 115200 baud, with 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit-times:

See its homepage[2] [dead link 2023-05-06 ⓘ] for more examples.

Minicom

minicom can be obtained from the official repositories. Start Minicom in setup mode:

Using the textual navigation menu, change the serial port settings to the following:

Serial Device: /dev/ttyS0 Bps/Par/Bits: 9600 8N1

Press Enter to exit the menus (pressing Esc will not save changes). Remove the modem Init and Reset strings, as we are not connecting to a modem. To do this, under the Modem and Dialing menu, delete the Init and Reset strings. Optionally save the configuration by choosing save setup as dfl from the main menu. Restart minicom with the serial cable connected to the target machine. To end the session, press Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+X .

picocom

picocom is a tiny dumb-terminal emulation program that is very like minicom, but instead of mini, it is pico. The following example connect to ttyS0 at 9600 bps:

See its manual for detailed usage.

Screen

GNU Screen is able to connect to a serial port. It will connect at 9600 baud by default:

A different baud rate (e.g. 115200) may be specified on the command line.

To end the session, press Ctrl+a followed by K . Alternatively, press Ctrl+a , type :quit and confirm it by pressing Enter .

Serialclient

Serialclient[3] is a CLI client for serial connection written in ruby. Install ruby package, then install it with the following:

Then, you can use like this:

tinyserial

tinyserial AUR is a minicom replacement for accessing serial ports on Linux inspired by FreeBSD ‘tip’.

tio

tio AUR is a simple serial device tool which features a straightforward command-line and configuration file interface to easily connect to serial TTY devices for basic I/O operations. It has less focus on classic terminal/modem features and more focus on the needs of embedded developers and hackers. tio was originally created to replace screen for connecting to serial devices when used in combination with tmux.

Graphical front-ends

• cutecom — A GUI enabled serial monitor.

• PuTTY — A terminal integrated SSH/Telnet client.

• moserial — A GTK-based serial terminal, primarily intended for technical users and hardware hackers who need to communicate with embedded systems, test equipment, and serial consoles.

Windows clients

On Windows machines, connect to the serial port using programs like PuTTY or Terminalbpp.

Installing Arch Linux using the serial console

Note: The Arch Linux monthly release(i.e. the installation medium)’s boot loader has been configured[4] to listen on 0 port( ttyS0 /COM1) at 115200 bps, with 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit-times.

1. Connect to the target machine using the method described above.
2. Boot the target machine using the Arch Linux installation medium.
3. When the bootloader appears, select Boot Arch Linux () and press Tab to edit
4. Append console=ttyS0,115200 and press Enter .
5. Now systemd should detect ttyS0 and spawn a serial getty on it. Login as root and start the installation as usual.

• After setup is complete, the console settings will not be saved on the target machine; in order to avoid having to connect a keyboard and monitor, configure console access on the target machine before rebooting.
• While a port speed of 9600 is used in most of the examples in this document, working with higher values is recommended (List of available speeds is displayed in Minicom by pressing Ctrl+a and then p )

Debugging an unresponsive machine using a serial console

Even though [5] has only raw and terse instructions, it presents the full scene. It is important to note that here, the machine under test got unresponsive in a reproducible manner. And that it happened during normal operation. So it could be accessed normally before it needed debugging. However, in general, the serial console is also useful for debugging boot issues. Perhaps by configuring the boot loader by hand at machine startup time. Also note the mentioned netconsole within the P.S paragraph of the external link from this section.

Troubleshooting

Ctrl+c and Minicom

If you are having trouble sending a Ctrl+c command through minicom you need to switch off hardware flow control in the device settings ( minicom -s ), which then enables the break.

Resizing a terminal

Unlike ssh, serial connections do not have a mechanism to transfer something like SIGWINCH when a terminal is resized. This can cause weird problems with some full-screen programs (e.g. less ) when you resize your terminal emulator’s window.

Resizing the terminal via stty is a workaround:

$ stty rows lines cols columns 

However, this requires you to manually input the proper geometry. The following methods should be simpler.

1. There is a lesser-known utility called resize , shipped with xterm , that can solve this problem. Invoke it without parameters after you resize the terminal emulator’s window:

2. If you do not want to install xterm, it is possible to do the same work via a shell function. Put the following function into your bash/zshrc and invoke it without parameters after resizing the terminal emulator’s window:

rsz() < if [[ -t 0 && $# -eq 0 ]];then local IFS='[;' escape geometry x y echo -ne '\e7\e[r\e[999;999H\e[6n\e8' read -t 5 -sd R escape geometry || < echo unsupported terminal emulator. >&2 return 1 > x="$" y="$" if [[ $ -eq "$" && $ -eq "$" ]];then echo "$ $x$" elif [[ "$x" -gt 0 && "$y" -gt 0 ]];then echo "$x$ -> $x$" stty cols $ rows $ else echo unsupported terminal emulator. >&2 return 1 fi else echo 'Usage: rsz' fi >

Missing ports on multi-port expansion cards

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Can the kernel module option be set in modprobe.d(5) ? (Discuss in Talk:Working with the serial console)

The number of serial ports using the generic 8250 driver on the default kernel configuration is set to 4 at runtime with a maximum of 32. This will prevent the creation of /dev/ttyS4 and above. Counting the typical built in serial port on the motherboard this prevents the use of the 4th serial port on a 4 port expansion card.

This can be overridden with the kernel parameter 8250.nr_uarts . E.g.:

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Serial Terminal Emulator

This section lists command-line applications to communicate with the serial port.

Picocom​

Picocom is a simple and effective solution for those who like command-line:

$ picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0 

Screen​

Screen is a good alternative for the picocom:

By default, if no option is specified, screen uses the standard 9600 baud rate.

Minicom​

Minicom is also a good choice to access the serial port on Linux. You can visualize the setup above by running the following command:

In case you run Minicom without any additional arguments, it will use the default settings saved on /etc/minicom/minirc.dfl .

GUI options​

This section lists Graphical User Interface applications to communicate with the serial port.

GTKterm​

GTKterm is a simple GTK+ terminal that can be used on Linux to communicate with the serial port:

Putty​

Putty is an SSH client that can also be used to communicate with the serial port on Windows and Linux:

TeraTerm​

TeraTerm is a terminal emulator that can be used on Windows with the purpose to connect via SSH and also to access serial ports:

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