Virtual serial port??? Vista 64 bit, usb dongle, palm 755p verizon

I have a new 64 bit Vista OS and I'm having all the same problems everyone else is.  I can't hotsync using the cable.  I purchased the bluetooth dongle (Kensington) that many have said works.  My phone recognizes the PC.  My instructions on the phone for the hot sync using bluetooth instructs me to set up a virtual serial port.  The instructions are not very clear.  This is where it falls apart for me.  Can anyone explain how to set up this virtual serial port?  Thanks.
Post relates to: Treo 755p (Sprint)
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Well I'm happy to report a successful solution.  At the recommendation of some other threads I went out and bout and ioGear GBU321 USB Bluetooth adapter and setup was a breeze and it works (although it is SLOOOOOOW compared to a cable hookup, allow some time and plug your treo in during your first sync).
To setup you do the following (And this may also work for your Kensington):
Insert the driver CD
Insert the dongle when asked.
Install the drivers
Pair your device.  Basically go to the Bluetooth setup screen on the Palm and select "Trusted Devices".  You'll find the bluetooth adapter, select it and then either the palm or the PC will either provide or ask for a paring code.  The instructions will guide you through but basically you'll want to make sure the same numbers are entered on both screens (this prevents you from accidentally pairing with some random nearby computer)
This will actually set up your virtual port for you. 
You then go into the hotsync manager and click "serial" and select the port just created from the pairing process. 
If you don't know what port was created bring up "Control Panels" and select "Phone and Modem" (Assuming you are in "Classic View").
Click on the modem tag and you'll see something like "Standard Modem Over Bluetooth Link" and next to it will be the assigned port.
I hope that helps.  I know I was relieved to not have to trash either my Palm or my PC (Although when the Pre or an iPhone with a physical keyboard comes out all bets are off)
Post relates to: Treo 755p (Verizon)

Similar Messages

  • Virtual serial ports

    Hi,
    I am searching for an application to create virtual serial ports without any knowledge in computer programing.
    I browsed the internet without success. I found many apps for Windows or Linux but none for Mac OS.
    Any idea about that ? Thanks for anwer... JPB

    Some links that might help (or not)
    http://blog.philippklaus.de/2011/08/make-rs232-serial-devices-accessible-via-eth ernet/
    http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=90008
    http://pbxbook.com/other/mac-tty.html
    http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=634
    Note: Several solutions for the Mac use a tool called socat (some of the links above talk about this).
    The following may incur a cost
    http://www.get-console.com/airconsole/
    Get-Console have a hardware device - effectively a standard Serial port server but they also have a driver package for the Mac which allows using a virtual serial port on the Mac to talk to their serial port server. You could try their driver with your software, but if that fails you could consider their hardware as well.

  • About creating a virtual serial port

    Hi all,
    Anyone knows if exists some API that's possible create a virtual serial port on Windows XP?
    Thanks,
    Vivian

    Anyone knows if exists some API that's possible
    ible create a virtual serial port on Windows XP?It might exist, but not in Java.

  • How do I process serial port strings as bits

    In response to my commands, my instrument is sending bytes to my serial
    port. In one instance, 2 bytes are received. I want to treat these 2 bytes
    as a group of 16 bits.
    The VISA and Compatibility Serial functions return these bytes from the
    serial port to Labview clearly labelled a "string".
    Everything I can find in the way of Labview functions and .vis don't want to
    do bit twiddling, bit swapping, and bit dropping, with "string" data.
    I thought "hex string to number" could be used here, but I can't find a way.
    The 2 Bytes in question can be represented as hex, but the data are not the
    ASCII codes for the hex representation of a binary number, they are the
    binary number. This "hex string to number" seems to want ASCII c
    odes.
    You can feed a hex number typed into a "control" box wired into "hex string
    to number" and you get a meaningful number. You can feed the 2 bytes from
    the serial port into an "indicator" set to read in hex and you get a hex
    number that is a correct representation. But that is Labview handing them
    around to itself. I need to get my "hands" on them.
    I can't feed those same bytes that show up as a correct hex representation
    in an indicator into the "hex string to number" or anything else, so far,
    and get a number that is useful for further processing.
    I thought "variant to data", but I can't find enough reference material to
    understand how to use it. A boolean array seems like a bit of a weird
    approach, so I thought I'd ask before I looked into that.
    I'm used to dealing directly with binary numbers on the processor stack, I
    call them whatever I want, and turn them into anything I feel like.
    I'm sure I'm staring the solution in the face, but I can't find any way to
    persuade
    Labview to treat this "string" data as 16 bits.
    I've got the 16 bits, which is better than not having them, but I don't have
    much hair left.

    duh, well I finally discovered the "Unflatten from String" function. A guy
    just feeds in the bytes he's collected from his serial port that Labview
    thinks are a "string", and out come lovely little unsigned 16 bit numbers,
    or whatever other type of number he wants to turn the bytes into. And there
    are great little bit twiddlers available after that, like "swap bytes", and
    you can mask out bits with the logic operators, why this is fun. There's
    nothing like being a moron...... fly me to the moon...................
    "David Lewis" wrote in message
    news:[email protected]..
    > The two bytes would come from a serial port read.vi in Labview, classed as
    a
    > string. For instance, D3 and 02. The output wou
    ld swap the two bytes,
    i.e.
    > to 02 and D3, consider the two swapped bytes as 16 bits, drop the six most
    > significant bits, and output the ten bits that are left as an integer
    > classed by Labview as some kind of number, not a string.
    >
    > Your example StringToBits_Converter.vi I found on the ni.com site
    > unfortunately gives an error message and refuses to open on my system
    saying
    > it comes from a newer version of Labview 6 than I am running. Mine says
    > 6.0.1b3. Thank you very much anyway.
    >
    > "FightOnSCTrojan" wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]..
    > > In another words, you want to create a VI in which the input is 2
    > > strings (i.e. AB) and the output is the converted array bits (e.g.
    > > 1010101010101010)?
    >
    >

  • Windows Kernel Debbuging: Debug over virtual serial port with WDK 8.1

    I'm currently having some issues doing kernel debugging of a Windows 7 x64 target from my Windows 8.1 x64 host machine. I'm running Visual Studio 2013 with WDK 8.1 on my host and have provisioned my target machine running in VMWare.
    Here are my configurations for the target machine. It was configured by reading mostly from here - http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/545835/Kernel-Mode-Debugging-in-a-VM-using-Visual-Studio :
        Windows 7 x64
        Serial port COM2 with VMWare with name \\.\pipe\com2. All proper options in VMWare are checked
        Debug flag for OS enabled through msconfig. Debug port is COM2 running at 115200 baud.
        I ran the test target client "WDK Test Target Setup x64-x64_en-us.exe" on the machine before provisioning the computer
    I was able to provision the computer properly -- it created the WDK Remove User account. However, I'm running into some issues actually debugging. Below are the steps
        Launch the Windows 7 x64 target image in VMWare and wait on the boot menu
        In Visual Studio (host machine), go to Debug -> Attach to process -> Select my computer -> Select process "Kernel" -> Attach
        In VMWare, press enter to boot Windows
        It takes a while, but on my host machine, Visual Studio eventually connects. I can choose to "Break All" and actually use the debugger.
    However, I can't seem to connect to the debugger if I don't do it before booting the kernel. And I can only attach once. For example, I can't let Windows initialize to the desktop and then build my driver and begin debugging. The debugger will always hang on
    "Waiting to reconnect...". The same goes for if I begin debugging on kernel initialization, decide to stop debugging, then try to reconnect or reattach; it will hang on "Waiting to reconnect..." indefinitely as well.

    Follow the directions here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/jj200334%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
    You are using user mode debug setup menus, that won't work.
    Mark Roddy Windows Driver and OS consultant www.hollistech.com

  • Serial ports in 64-bit Linux

    I am having problems with this and have posted here:
    java comm api in 64-bit Linux (second page... look for a post about the same time as this one)
    Does anyone have a reliable howto for 64 bit Linux ?
    Needless to say... annoyance that this is not in the core api is limitless.
    Edited by: hamiljf on 06-Nov-2010 07:55

    hamiljf wrote:
    Needless to say... annoyance that this is not in the core api is limitless.I'm annoyed that we don't have Complex Primitives, Operator Overloading and World Peace in the core API but they ain't and are probably never going to be. If you are really annoyed then you could always switch to Mono and use System.IO.Ports . I can switch to use Mono for Operator Overloading but Mono does not have Complex Primitives or World Peace and I don't see them ever being implemented in Mono. I suppose I have to go back to FORTRAN and just forget World Peace. Bummer!

  • Using USB device with Virtual Com port

    I have an actisys IR USB device that creates a virtual serial port. I can read from it using VISA, however it will not write. I have the same setup working on LV 6.1 running windows 2000. I need to make it work on my system running XP and LV 7.1.

    Hello,
    Does your Windows 2000/LabVIEW 6.1 system work correctly or do you see the same behavior?  It sounds like there may be something wrong with the termination of the command.  What termination method are you using?  Is your instrument set for that method?  You may also want to try using the NI-488.2 Interactive Control.  A tutorial on how to use it is located here if needed.  This will bypass VISA and LabVIEW.  If this works, you may want to update to the latest version of VISA (if you don't already have it) to see if that fixes the issue.
    Chris R.
    Chris R.
    Applications Engineer
    National Instruments

  • USB to Serial port adapter - Mac thinks  it's a modem

    I’m trying to connect my Mac’s USB port to a Sony Beta SP recorder's Serial Port using a generic USB to Serial adapter which uses the Prolific PL-2303 chip.
    I’m using the latest Prolific Universal driver, but when I plug in the USB cable I get a message that a ‘new network device has been detected’ and suggesting that I use System Preferences to set it up. But in System Preferences it seems to think the USB to Serial adapter is a modem and is looking for a phone number and other configuration data.
    Does anyone know how to get it to work as just a serial communication device to my Sony’s serial port? If I get it working I'll be connecting it to an RS232 to RS422 adapter to talk to the Sony port.
    Thanks.

    Thanks Andy.
    I'll have a go again. It was late last night when I was trying to set it up, so maybe a fresh brain will have more success. I did try to 'Cancel' the network preference window that opened, but got the impression that it would not work unless I did 'something'. Someone else told me I could cancel that message permanently within System Preferences, so I'll try that too. Yet another bit of advice I got was that I would have to install 'MacPorts' and run something called 'Minicom' to set up the serial parameters. Windows was so simple by comparison
    As a non-techie (at least in all these software and protocol issues) I'm more than a little confused.
    Regards
    Message was edited by: esmonde

  • Using USB Printer on Beige G3 with Localtalk/Serial Port - How?

    I have an Epson Stylus 740 which has both DIN 8/Serial port and USB connections, but the serial quit showing-up, so I want to connect via the USB connector. Is this possible?
    Is there an adapter from DIN 8 Serial/Localtalk connector on Beige G3 to USB for Printer?
    Or do I need to buy a PCI to USB card?
    Other solution?
    thanks

    Russo:
    If you tried to connect an adaptor to the serial port that had a USB connector on the end, it probably won't work since the serial port isn't currently working. You'd need a USB PCI card to connect to the USB.
    I have this same printer, originally used the serial port and then switched to USB when I got the PCI card. This has worked great.
    You should see if something got turned off. Look at these:
    Under the Apple Menu>Control Panel > AppleTalk - make sure the printer port is selected
    Under Apple Menu>Control Panel > Remote Access > Modem (from the drop down menu) - make sure that the printer port isn't selected
    Under Apple Menu > Control Panel > USB Printer sharing - make sure that is turned OFF.
    You might also have to install drivers for the Epson from the disk that came with it. If you insert the CD and choose "custom install" you'll get another screen that allows you to choose the serial driver package.
    Post back if you get it working (or don't).
    HTH.
    A

  • VISA get resource name doesn't return USB serial ports

    We built an application on a computer that had an onboard serial port - COM1.  We put the option to change the COM port in the application.  We installed the built application on a computer with no serial ports, but installed a USB to serial converter that registers as COM3.  LabView does not see this port, even with a test application to return only the VISA resource names. 
    We have verified that the port is good with another program (a Modbus simulator) and installed the latest VISA runtime v4.41 separately to no avail.
    Any suggestions at further troubleshooting would be extremely helpful.
    Joe T.
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    My main application still isn't working, but now the small test ones are.
    Here's what I did:
    1.  Update my LabView 8.5 with the latest VISA runtime - 4.4.  This updated the Installer as well.
    2.  Added the MAX Installer to the build.
    3.  Added  the NI-VISA Configuration Support to the build
    4.  Uninstalled the application and reinstalled it with the new install volume.
    When I run MAX, COM3 shows up.  It also shows up in the Get Resources test application.  The simple test Modbus write program works, too.  I have a sneaky feeling that COM1 may be hard-coded somewhere in the main application; our next task is to find where the communications breaks down in our code.  The bottom line seems to be a lack of experience with the Application Builder on our part.
    Thanks to all who contributed!
    Joe T.

  • [SOLVED] usb serial port emulation

    Hello
    I'm an Arch newbie. I just purchased an HP Neoware CA21 thin client, replaced the small DOM unit by a 1GB module, and installed Arch on it. I would like to use this device as a kind of data logger, 24x7 continuous operation.
      The device I'm reading is an ADC connected via a USB port, which provides a CDC/ACM interface. When I plug it into the CA21 USB port, /dev/ttyACM0 does appear. Under Ubuntu on a normal PC the same happens but I find I can only use it via the usbserial driver, which provides serial port emulation for a USB device, creating /dev/ttyUSB0. That's because I can't get the java serial port interface rxtx to recognise a ttyACMn device, for reasons I don't understand and am still investigating.
    So, I have a couple of newbie questions about Arch ...
    1/ is there an equivalent to usbserial, ie a serial port emulation for USB ports?
    2/ if not, or perhaps more correctly, how can my java app interface to ttyACM0? The Arduino crowd may know about this.
    3/ I'm kind of assuming rxtx works under Arch - is that right?
    Thanks for any help.
    Andrew
    Last edited by mistertransistor (2011-11-12 16:43:03)

    Well, kind of solved. I found that
    - adding the "options usbserial ..." line does not prevent ttyACM0 from appearing when the device is plugged in
    - once ttyACM0 is there, no amount of "modprobe usbserial ..." will make ttyUSB0 appear
    - however, if you "rmmod cdc-acm" and then "modprobe usbserial ..." you will get a ttyUSB0
    Having figured that out, I got a test app reading the USB port with no problems. However my real app gave some odd 'Main class not found  ...' error even though the exact same jarfile runs fine under Windows XP (you may be wondering why I develop there rather than under Ubuntu. Well, I have a dual-boot machine XP/Ubuntu and NetBeans runs *much* better under XP - quite puzzling).  Eventually I solved this by creating a new NetBeans project/application and copying in the code from the existing one - a total mystery to me).
    So now the device is in my garage collecting data from my seismograph. I'm writing to a USB stick, not sure about how long that will last but as I don't delete files much it's always writing in a new area and any given area gets very few write cycles.
    This is marked SOLVED but I still have not found how to read ttyACM0 and I would like to do that.
    Andrew

  • Vista 64-bit and Treo 600 Hotsync solution that works!

    I too searched many, many forums and sites for a solution to this problem. And I have found it.
    I have an HP dv9260 laptop with Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit and Office Pro 2007, which I bought in June this year. And I have been unable to sync my Treo 600 to it - until now. (I had even resorted to syncing to my older Toshiba Tablet PC (WinXP Pro, Office Pro 2003) via standard USB sync cable, connecting the Tablet to the new HP with a Belkin Easy Transfer cable, exporting my updated Contacts, Calendar, and InfoSafe records to .vcf, .ics, and .txt files, then transferring between the HP and Tablet, and then importing them into the appropriate app - Whew! man what a pain.
    Now I have found a far more elegant and simple method. I found an Infrared USB 2.0 adaptor (dongle) at the Chunwai_1996 store on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-USB-2-0-IRDA-ADAPER-4Mbps-SUPPORT-VISTA_W0QQitemZ110164766509QQcmdZViewItem) for $8.33 USD + $5.67 USD S&H (total $14.00 even) (I believe that the price is now $12.49 USD + $5.67 S&H.) , which said it supported and supplied drivers for 64-bit Vista. It took a little over two weeks to receive the device from Hong Kong (received yesterday, 08-31-2007).
    I checked the mini CD that shipped with it but found no Vista drivers. So I just plugged it into a USB port on the laptop. Vista immediately recognized the dongle and installed generic Vista 64-bit drivers from Microsoft. I tested the unit by placing the Treo near it. The unit recognized the Treo as a legitimate device! Next, I followed the directions I found in another thread that had been successful with USB 2.0, Vista 32-bit drivers, and the Treo 600, with one slight modification. Here is a repost from the Vista-Help.ca blog by Kerry Brown, verbatim except for a couple of modifications and few additional steps.
    =============================================
    Palm Treo 600 with Vista and Office 2007
    I've had a lot of people ask about how I got my Treo 600 phone to sync with Outlook 2007 in Vista so I thought I'd write up the procedure. Hopefully Palm will have new Vista compatible software soon but in the meantime here's how I got it working on two computers so far. First you have to use Vista x86. I couldn't get it to work with Vista x64. If you've already tried to get it working then you have to clean up all the leftover stuff before continuing.
    1. Uninstall Palm Desktop
    2. Insert the CD that came with the Treo but don't let it autorun.
    3. Navigate to the correct language folder on the Treo CD and right click on setup.exe
    4. Set the compatibilty for XP SP2 and Run as administrator.
    5. Run setup.exe
    6. During the install the initial sync may fail. Just tell the installation to continue.
    7. If you want to sync with Outlook make sure you pick this option during the install
    8. Once it's finished close the Hotsync System Tray application.
    9. In Windows Explorer go to the Palmone folder in Program Files.
    10. Right click hotsync.exe and set it to run in administrator mode with XP SP2 compatibility.
    11. Do the the same for palm.exe.
    12. Start the Palm Desktop and change the Hotsync settings to manual start.
    -and- 12a. ******* Check the Infrared option to make it active and available *******
    13. Exit Palm Desktop and reboot.
    You should now be able to sync the Treo 600 with Outlook 2007 or Palm Desktop. You will have to manually start the Hotsync application and deal with a uac prompt because it is set to run in administrator mode. The sync only works when Outlook is not running. You also have to sync twice. The first time you will get errors about the default folders for Outlook. Ignore the errors and press the sync button again. If it still doesn't work reboot and try it again. Good luck. Let me know if you find an easier procedure.
    =====================================================
    After rebooting the laptop, I performed the following additional steps:
    A. Manually started the Hotsync app (you can put it in the Startup folder to auto load at Startup).
    B. Set the Custom options to "Desktop overrides Handheld" for Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes - this may help avoid duplicates from the first Hotsync. Also, this is just a temporary override from the default setting "Synchronize the files" for each selection.
    C. Selected Hotsync on the Treo and enabled the Infrared option.
    D. Pressed the Hotsync 'button' on the Treo and placed it pointing at the Infrared dongle.
    The Hotsync ran to completion without errors! Though it did take a good deal longer since it only runs at 115.2 kbps vs. the 480 Mbps of USB 2.0, I am happy.
    Hope this helps others with Vista 64-bit systems and Palm OS handhelds.
    Cheers.
    -Robert
    Post relates to: Treo 600 (Verizon)

    Will this solution work for the Palm Treo 755p?
    Post relates to: Treo 755p (Sprint)

  • Javacomm serial port created after JVM started

    Hello all,
    I am playing with bluetooth and Java for a project and have run into a brick wall.
    My bluetooth adaptor (USB) uses rfcomm to create a virtual serial port to my phone.
    After exhaustive searching, I have not been able to find a Java API for a usb bluetooth dongle that will do this so I am having to use Runtime.exec to shell the program that will create the connection.
    The device that is created is /dev/rfcomm0, and I have created a symlink from /dev/ttyS1 to this so JavaComm can see this as /dev/rfcomm0 is not considered valid (I only have one com port in my PC so ttyS1 does not normally exist).
    When Java is started, /dev/ttyS1 does not exist (using the javacom to access it throws a NoSuchPortException) - this is expected. The problem is once the port is created, I still get the same exception. I can confirm that the port has been created sucessfully as minicom is able to communicate with the phone.
    I have tried putting the javacomm code in a new class, and creating a new instance of this class once the port does exist, but this does not work. I have also used the enumerator to check all ports that are known and /dev/ttyS1 does not appear in the list.
    If i run the command to create the port in a console before starting java then everything works althought this is obviously not acceptable as a final solution.
    Does anyone have any thoughts / suggestions what might help fix this?
    Cheers,
    -Jeff

    Morning,
    don't try to get the JavaComm class loaded before the rfcomm process has finished.Unfortunatly the rfcomm process will not terminate whilst the port is open, which makes things much harder.
    Here are some code snippets, the connect method is called as soon as I start my java program. It starts a thread which invokes the rfcomm commands. If the process terminates immediatly (p.waitFor() only waits a moment) then the connection has not been made, and runState is set to -1 which terminates the while loop in connect() and returns false.
    If the connection is made sucessfully, the process doesn't terminate, so the only way for the connect() method to return is if validPort returns true.
    The portListener class is the only one that uses javax.comm, and each time I call it I create a new instance - which I presume would re-scan for avaliable serial ports.
    If the serial port is not avaliable, an exception is thrown, so it returns false, if no exception is thrown it returns true.
    BTDevice.java
    public boolean connect(String addr)
    runState = 0;
    address = addr;
    start();
    while (runState == 0)
    if ((pl = new PortListener(serialPort)).validPort())
    runState = 1;
    return runState == 1;
    public void run()
    String s="";
    try
    p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/usr/bin/rfcomm connect rfcomm0 " + address);
    p.waitFor();
    catch (Exception e){}
    runState = -1;
    PortListener.java
    public boolean validPort()
    try
    CommPortIdentifier.getPortIdentifier(serialPort);
    return true;
    catch (Exception e)
    return false;
    Unfortunatly this does not happen, and even once the connection is made, validPort still returns false, as a NoSuchPort exception is thrown.
    However, if I put in a Thread.sleep(60000); between the start() and while (...) in connect() - so the first time an instance of PortListener is created the port does definatly exist - everything is fine.
    This must mean that as soon as javax.comm is initialised for the first time within a JVM, it stores all the known ports etc. so any other time it is used (even within a new instance of a class) it uses what it found out the first time and doesn't scan for new ports.
    I do not want to leave in Thread.sleep(...) as the connection time can vary, if the phone is set to auto-connect it takes 2-3 seconds, if it isn't it can take 15 seconds before the user looks at the phone.
    Any thoughts on how to make it re-scan for avaliable ports?
    Cheers,
    -Jeff

  • HP Mini - Is there a serial port?

    On the HP Mini 110-1030NR, I need to use software that communicates through a serial port but the Mini does not show any serial ports. Is there any way to enable the serial port? I have looked in the BIOS and the Advanced section is not listed which is where the HP website support says to go to enable serial ports. Am I out of luck?
    Thanks-

    HI,
    DaleWA wrote:
    Sorry I mixed too many issues in the last message. 
    I think the simpler question is:  Can I use a USB to serial adapter with the HP Mini 110-1030NR?
    If so, how do I get it to work? I have installed the driver that came with the adapter. I know the adapter worked on an old Dell laptop. So, the issue must be the HP.
    Do you still have the manual that came with the adapter?
    Does the device show up in Device manager?
    which OS is installed on your mini?
    look under Device Manager of the System Properties screen.  (Go there by Start-Setting-Control Panel-System Properties-Hardware-Device Manager-Select View-Device by connection).
    The device should have installed as a “USB Serial Port (COMx)” attached to “USB High Speed Serial Converter”.
    Change COM Port Properties & COM Port Number
    This feature is particularly useful for programs, such as HyperTerminal, which only work with COM1 through COM4.  Please ensure that you do not change the COM Port Number already in use.
    To change the virtual COM port properties:
    Select the “USB Serial Port”
    Click “Properties”
    Select “Port Setting”
    Select “Advanced”
    Click the drop down arrow on COM Port Number and scroll to the required COM port.
    Select “OK”
    Return to the Device Manager Screen.  You will see that the USB Serial Port installation has been changed to the new COM Port Number.
    Best regards,
    erico
    ****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
    2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

  • Safe mode plus serial port

    My computer can only boot in the safe mode (logic board failure). No problem except I would like to have a serial port working. A USB external disk works fine. So how can it be made to work? Trying to load a kext for the serial port using terminal does not work. LoadKext does not add kext.
    What can be done here?

    "Logic Board Failure" usually indicates a large sub-system not a single item.  Like the whole USB system might be dead.  Or the whole PCI bus.  Or the sound system.  etc.
    I doubt Apple will encourage you to hack up OSX to bypass the dead hardware.  Its certailly possible to custom config FreeBSD/Darwin.  It might be beyound your comfort level though.
    A good experiment would be to download the current Ubuntu Linux Desktop Install CD (ubuntu.com).  Because this CD can also boot Ubuntu Linux Desktop so you can try it out.
    A handy way to see what is actually wrong, since the Ubuntu boot system tests all hardware.  Apple Hardware test would tell you what is wrong too.
    My point here is that if Ubuntu works, then you can wipe the drive and install that.  Because there is LOTS of documentation on the web for customizing Ubuntu, making it easy to NOT load a driver for the not working hardware.
    I wander around my neighborhood on garbage day and grab old computers that look undabled.  They are free.  And as I said, they have no trobule running Linux or FreeBSD.

Maybe you are looking for