Xserve serial port console

I'm considering ordering an OpenGear console server to connect to our Xserve, for access via the serial port. The Xserve User Guide says (pg 20) to set terminal software to 56KB/s, which translates to 458 752 bits per second. The console device that I'm considering:
http://www.opengear.com/product-cm4001-spec.html
...does up to 115 200bps. My question is: can the Apple serial port scale down to more standard serial communication speeds?

You're misinterpreting the docs. The default speed it 56kbps, or 57,600 bits per second, well within the limits of the unit you're considering.

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Serial port definitions/handling questions

Xserve (brand spanking new), 10.6.2
1- Setting speed for the tty.serial port
I edited, as documnented, the /etc/ttys file to use "serial.9600" instead of "serial.57600" which unfortunatly is now default for the one serial port of the Xserve. Then I "kill -HUP 1" to get launchd to refresh its definition. No difference.
In the end, out of desperation after many trials without success, I edit /etc/getttytab and change sp#57600 to sp#9600 in the serial.57600 definition and this finally worked.
This sort of indicates to me that launchd no longer uses /etc/ttys but some other hidden file where the serial.57600 is assigned to getty and tty.serial.
Anyone know where the serial ports are now defined ?
Also, once the system is up, is there a way to release the port from the login process so that I could make an outbound connection using cu/screen ?

Thanks for the responses.
I suspected it was in a PLIST, but I am not yet used to the Snow Leopard finder to get to "unix" directory and hadn't gotted a list of files in that directory and figured it was empty and that the launchd plists were elsewhere. Argh ! That is what lack of sleep does
I take it that in that plist, the "SessionCreate" refers to the "on" or "off" that one uses in ttys ?
Also, if I am to get an 8 port USB gizmo, would I be adding them to the comp.apple.xserve.serial-ports plist ? In which case, I take it that the launchctl control is an all or nothing, unable to control individual ports ? Should I then create individual plists for each port so I can control them individually ?
BTW, while launchctl unload did remove the getty process assigned to tty.serial, the port is still marked as "Line in use" and "cu" unable to use it.

Serial port for console access to switch

Just got a Netgear L2 Switch, and need to use VT100 terminal emulation to connect to the switch's serial port.
Does anyone know how to enable the Xserve's serial port for this type of job? When running Zterm for OS X I get an "Error: 16 opening port" and I'm at a loss for how to do it. I've heard that USB to Serial adapters have been working, but it seems silly that the serial port wouldnt work.

Thanks Camelot, your advice was spot on.
Just to close the topic:
Edit "/System/Library/StartupItems/SerialTerminalSupport/SerialTerminalSupport"
and change the line:
ENABLESERIALTERMINAL=$TRUE
to
ENABLESERIALTERMINAL=$FALSE
also, may be redundant with the last step but I edited /etc/ttys and changed:
tty.serial "/usr/libexec/getty serial.9600" vt100 on secure
to
tty.serial "/usr/libexec/getty serial.9600" vt100 off secure
Finally, dont be an idiot like I am, and leave the XServe case lock on... this will prevent the port from operating, and cause you to go crazy.
TwoNine

How to control an Xserve G4 with the serial port

I have an Xserve G4 first generation, and was wondering exactly how you would go about connecting to it via serial port incase I need to change something when there is a network issue. I have looked around the internet without much success. It has Leopard Server on it, so Apple says the baud rate is 56700, and 8bit, no parity. So that's all set in the client machine, which is a MacBook Pro with a USB to Serial adapter on it, which shows up in Zterm. Once I'm in Zterm, it just sits there, and pressing enter doesn't prompt a log in. Does anyone see what else I'm most likely missing?
Thanks

Thanks for the reply Cemelot. Yes, I did create a profile in ZTerm. This is what I have it set to.
I also read that you're supposed to run the command "/usr/libexec/getty serial.57600 /dev/tty.serial" on the Xserve itself. It made no difference if I did that or not. I also checked to make sure tty.serial was inside /dev/. Anything else I'm missing? Thanks again.

Sunfire E4900 Console Login by Serial port

How to login in console of SUNFIRE E4900 server by serial port ? Exactly which cable is required to connect with laptop usb ?
I dont have netmanagement IP.

Corret.
You use 25 male connector for connect to SC, DB9 female connector for connect to USB converter, but this cable must be null-modem.
Minimum required connections:
DB25 DB9
2 ---- 2
3 ---- 3
7 ---- 5
Regards.

Using Serial Port as Console (not Mac OS X Server)

Folks using other Unix-y operating systems, as well as Mac OS X Server, can use a terminal plugged into their machine's serial port as a console to access the shell. I've searched high and low for a way to do this with regular Mac OS X Leopard with no luck. None of the solutions for Linux/*BSD/etc... work.
Any ideas?
(FYI: I'm using a USB to 9pin RS-232 cable. I've confirmed that my Mac can talk to the machine attached via this interface.)

I fixed it. It turns out that the Leopard -> Snow Leopard Migration screwed up the Subversion repository various credentials for user/group and other during the migration copy. Fortunately I had "cloned" my entire Leopard disk. I copied the cloned repository into the Snow Leopard disk and everything works. It looks like this was the fault of the Apple Migration process.

X4100 (x4200) system console on rear serial port ?

I have a number of x4100's and would like to have the bios appear on the serial console at the rear of the device rather than the IOLM interface. I am happy to only access the IOLM interface through the ssh interface. i.e. how to i redirect the bios console on boot to the rear console port ?

The BIOS contains an option for "Console Redirect". It is typically OFF by default. If you set it ON, then power cycle the system, the BIOS screen will appear on the attached terminal. Make sure to set the baud rate properly... it should be 9600.
Have you tried hooking a console to the serial port? On some BIOS versions, "Console Redirect" is set ON by default.
The kicker here, obviously, is that if the default for this option is OFF, you have to attach a graphics head to the graphics port of the system as well as a USB keyboard to get into the bios and set console redirect to ON. There is no getting away from the fact that these Galaxy class systems use PC motherboards, albeit ones beefed up for SUN's needs.

Using a PS/2 keyboard on a Sparc workstation through the serial port

We have recently migrated an application that used to run on a PC, to now run on a Sparc Workstation. This is a SunBlade 1500, running Solaris 8. The application is running in a dedicated console which has a fitted keyboard and trackerball that have PS/2 connectors and cannot be changed.
We need a way of connecting the PS/2 keyboards to the serial ports of the Sparc workstation. We already have a piece of software that will read ascii values from the serial port so we definately want to go through the serial ports.
Can someone please suggest what converters will be required to get the output of the keyboard and trackerball as ascii input to the serial port.

Actually, that's not a bit perverse, at all.
Jonathan's suggestion is a standard method of connecting to a server.
(null cable between the computer serial ports)
... see the Solaris man pages.
man tip
TeraTerm and Hyperterminal are customarily used on a PC running some dialect of Windows.
The 'tip' command is all that's necessary between Solaris systems.
PS/2 is not a serial connection, but is a keyboard/mouse interface 'invented' by IBM when they offered their XT-class PS/2 line of desktop systems, back in the 1980's.
I found this next link by using Google:
http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/computer/ps2/
The smaller DIN ports were more compact than the AT-class keyboard ports and the mouse moved from a serial port to a dedicated mouse port.
Serial communication devices are not keyboards, per se,
and keyboards are not serial communication devices.
You need other hardware in between to translate what the human being sends, and another computer is a common method to accomplish that translation.
Having said all that ...
Since you cannot change the dedicated console hardware,
I suggest you go to the manufacturer of that console equipment
and have them suggest some sort of serial-to-serial interface lash-up.

Usb to serial converter console access on aironet 1131

I am having difficulty accessing the console port utilizing a usb to serial converter. My settings are 9600, 8,n,1 and flow control is none.
The converter works if I use it for switches and router but fails on the aironet.
I can access the aironet if I go directly to the serial port.

Hi,
I haven't seen this problem except when I chose the incorrect COM port in my terminal emulator. Otherwise, usb-to-serial cables haven't presented any issues with Aironet equipment.
Sorry I couldn't help further. Maybe someone else has seen this issue.
-Ben

Start a program with a signal from serial port

Hi, my program need to continue when it's gets a signal from the
serial port, I've understand that i need to use Java Communications 3.0 API.
couldn't install it.
when i import, in my program, javax.comm.* it can't be resolve.
thank for eny help..:-)

Glad you got it to work. I would only say 2 very important things:
1) Do not use an IDE as long as you can't code using notepad and command console and don't understand the concept "classpath". Now you've to learn both the IDE and the Java language basics. This is going to take a longer time than when you learn it one by one.
2) You should NEVER place any 3rd party libraries in JRE/lib or JDK/bin. This is receipt for major future troubles. You should define the classpath yourself. You shouldn't misuse the default classpath.

Serial Port Config

I've seen this problem only on Solaris 10 6/06
A port configured for Bi-directional modem does not
initialize properly on startup. If one opens up SMC and
re-saves the configuration it will work okay. But if the computer
is rebooted, the configuration once again does not load.
The work-around is to write a script using pmadm and ttyadm
to manual reconfigure the port on startup.
This new "feature" makes 6/06 unreliable for use in my remote
data-acquisition network.

With what are you reading and writing to the serial port?
What is on the other side of the serial port? A serial port is not a loopback device - you cannot write to it and then read what you have written. To achieve that you need to run a null-modem cable between two serial ports in order to allow bi-directional communication via serial on the same platform.
Also - why still use serial? It is old and outdated technology. We are not even wiring serial console ports any more. Ethernet management ports and lights out management s/w are far more superior, than a simple redirection of the console display and keyboard via a serial port.
No more Fossil drivers. PPP killed SLIP. Internet kill the BBS star.. and Flash games killed Door games... Old style serial communication is pretty much dead on the modern computing platform.
Unless you are hooking up something like a GPS device or FMC?

Simple Serial Port Implementation FAILURE...MSDN?

Hi everyone!
I have a serial device connected via USB (connecting into COM7). I need to be able to read and write to/from this device. I created an external C# console application for opening the connection and writing/reading. It worked for the writing but not for the
reading. So after much trial and error, I more or less outright copied the example code the MSDN documentation provides, and this still isn't working. I am not receiving anything from the device. I have tested the device using other means such as putty and
the device is writing correctly.
Has anyone else had problems? Is the library just completely useless? Does anyone know of any alternatives?
Cheers!

Hello CRASH664,
>> Has anyone else had problems? Is the library just completely useless? Does anyone know of any alternatives?
This library should be already completed since it comes from .NET 2.0. There is a similar thread which also discusses about issues about reading data from USB by using SerialPort api:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11217619/can-send-cant-read-net-serial-port
It shows you could subscribe to the DataReceived Event to see if it is firing at all. And there is a Community comment about setting DTR and RTS to true, if the connected device needs them it will not transmit data.
Regards.
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Mac Pro serial ports?

I just bought a new Mac Pro Desktop (bye bye Windows).
I noticed there aren't any serial ports - and I'm imagining there is some clever way to facilitate it with the Pro desktop. I have a couple of serial consoles and such that I need to connect to on a semi-regular basis.
Could someone point me in the right direction. Thanks.

You can find cards at a lot of online stores like NewEgg, but I have no idea if they will work with OS X. If the card requires a driver, then you may have difficulty finding one with OS X compatible drivers.
You might post your question in the Mac Pro forum. Perhaps you will have luck there. This is not the best forum for your question.

Storagetek 6140 & serial port

I'm trying to access with a PC, using the serial port, to the Storagetek 6140's VT 100 console. I connected the ps2-6-pins-to-rj45 cable (530-3544-01) + RJ45-DB9 DTE adapter (530-3100-01), on Controller A and to com1 of my Windows pc. I downloaded TTerm (so I can send the ctrl-break), I configured com port like 6140's manual, but with no fortune. When I send ctrl-break nothing happens. I change the pc, com, I controlled the cable, but it's all ok. I think I made some mistake, but where?
Thanks

praxis22 wrote:
from there I was able to hit alt-break and it gave me the options of S for service menu or space for baud rate
I his S (capital S) and it asked me for a password, but since I wanted to reset the Array password that wasn't immediately useful. but I figure I can google or ask Sun for that. We are a little further on at
least,.I think you are mixing the different passwords. The password which is requested when you type "S" is kra16wen and it cannot be reset. This password is documented in the customer documentations for the 6140.
The array password is a different one, it can be reset by accessing the Service Interface Menu. It can be set and/or modified using CAM. Everytime you proceed with modifications on the array, CAM will read this password in the array and compare it with the one CAM has in its internal DB. If the password is similar, CAM proceeds with the modification, however if it is different, CAM will report an error. If you do not remember this password, you can use the Service Interface Menu to reset it. If you remember and want to change it or get CAM in sync with the real password in the array, you can use CAM to do that.
Hope this clears things.

Cannot close Serial port socket on Server 2008, Can on XP

As per the subject - running the same code using the same hardware, but different OS (Server 2008 Std. NOT XP Pro)will not work!
It's all very odd... The port opens fine but will not close using SerialPort.close(), thereby causing problems the next time the port is opened (PortInUseException).
Has anyone here experienced this before? Any suggestions as to where the problem may lie?
Edited by: wizzkidd on Jan 19, 2010 7:46 AM - More descriptive title

I have a serial port monitor open on both machines; it shows that the connection is still open (on Server 2008), even after the following is run:
     public void closePort() {
          if (serialPort != null) {
               serialPort.close();
               Console.print("Closed port: "       + "(" + commPort + ")");
          else {
               Console.print("Port is still open: " + "(" + commPort + ")");
     }However, on XP, the connection is closed properly.
Upon failure to close the port, the code has already been run, however, no exception is thrown.
Edited by: wizzkidd on Jan 19, 2010 7:56 AM

Xserve serial port console

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