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Setting up a Serial Connection

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To establish a serial connection you will need an open serial port (or USB serial adaptor) on your development machine.  You will also need a terminal program such as kermit or minicom.  The documentation in the following sections assumes you are using kermit, so if you choose to use minicom please adjust the commands as necessary.

To connect to the Gumstix console, you need a serial port, found on the tweener board or one of the console expansion boards. You will also need a null modem cable with appropriate connectors.

Connecting with Kermit

These directions are for the Kermit communications package (cKermit on Linux).

1. Connect the null-modem serial cable to the serial port on your computer and to the serial port on the Gumstix. For the console-vx board, use the middle port of the three present.

2. Launch kermit:

$ kermit -l /dev/ttyS0

where /dev/ttyS0 is the serial port you're using on the host computer. If you are using a USB serial adaptor your serial port is likely /dev/ttyUSB0

3. Now set up the serial connection parameters and connect to the COM:

C-Kermit> take ~/gumstix/gumstix-oe/extras/kermit-setup
C-Kermit> connect

4. Connect to the port by typing connect

5. Plug the power adapter into any power jack on the Gumstix board stack. When connected and powered, you should see a message from U-boot followed by the normal Gumstix boot sequence.

6. Log in for the first time with username root and password gumstix

7. When finished, you can return to the kermit prompt by typing [CTRL-\] then pressing c. Type quit to exit the program.

Connecting with Minicom

  1. First, configure Minicom
    1. As root, run minicom -s
    2. Under "Serial Port Setup" choose the following
      • Serial Device: /dev/ttyS0 (edit to match your system as necessary)
      • Bps/Par/Bits: 115200 8N1
      • Hardware Flow Control: No (this is important)
      • Software Flow Control: No
    3. Hit [ESC] until you return to the main configuration menu
    4. Select "Save Setup as dfl" to save the default setup
    5. Select "Exit from Minicom" to exit the program
  2. Connect the serial cable to the serial port on your computer and the serial port on the Gumstix
  3. Run Minicom again with minicom -o.  This tells it to skip all the modem initialization strings, which are unnecessary when communicating with the Gumstix.  You may need to do this as root if your normal login does not have permission to access the serial port.
  4. Plug the power adapter into the power jack of the Gumstix.  When connected and powered, you should see a message from U-boot followed by the normal Gumstix boot sequence in the minicom window.
  5. Log in for the first time with username root and password gumstix
  6. When finished, you can exit Minicom by typing [CTRL-A] then pressing Q.  This exits without running the normal modem reset sequence, which will only send garbage to the Gumstix.

Other Ways to Connect

By default, it is possible to connect to Gumstix COMs using SSH or VNC.  Overo COMs will broadcast their presence on the mDNS; with the standard 'local' domain, you could connect to a single Overo on your local network via ssh:

$ ssh overo.local

COM modules run X11VNC to enable users to view the root desktop which is useful if you need remote graphical access to your computer.  Note that X11VNC will display the first X display (i.e. 0.0) where many other VNC programs will display a new X display (e.g. 10.0).