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Use minicom as a serial-interface terminal application
Authored by: Thom on Nov 19, '04 09:58:11PM

I just compiled minicom on an XServe. Here are a few things to be aware of re: the serial port.

1) Just like any cisco router or HP switch, etc, the XServe is configured to listen with a secure terminal on the serial port, for config purposes. Disable this before trying to use the serial port for other purposes.

You might *think* of editing /etc/ttys, but you actually want to edit /System/Library/StartupItems/SerialTerminalSupport/SerialTerminalSupport -- and edit the line halfway through to say,

ENABLE_SERIAL_TERMINAL=$FALSE

Once this is done, it's easiest to just reboot the machine.

2) As mentioned above, the serial port is /dev/tty.serial. Here are some of the defaults I compiled into the program:

./configure --enable-dfl-port=/dev/tty.serial --enable-lock-dir=/var/spool/lock --enable-dfl-baud=9600

(of course, that's because my application is to talk to a device at 9600N81, YMMV.)

3) Notice the lock dir mentioned above. There is no /usr/spool/uucp, or /var/lock, as mentioned in the man page. That's why I compiled it with /var/spool/lock instead. I also ended up modifying the permissions on the lock directory, but there's probably a better way to do that. Again, just FWIW.

Hope this is helpful to someone.



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