[Cialug] Connecting to Serial Console w/ USB

[Nathan Stien]

On 1/25/07, lister at kulish.com <lister at kulish.com> wrote:
> But has anyone successfully connected to a serial console on a server via
> a usb/serial dongle?

I have not done it, but I can imagine how I'd do it.

> I need to hookup to a server with my laptop, but of course it doesnt have
> a serial port.  Go figure.

The server doesn't have a serial port?  Or the laptop?  Since the case
of the laptop not having a serial port would be trivial, I assume you
mean the server lacks the port.

> Laptop is Windows based.  Server is already setup for console access.

When you plug in the serial dongle to the server's USB port, it should
attach to a device node like /dev/ttyUSB0.  You might do a "dmesg |
grep ttyUSB" to see if you can find out which one it is.  If it
doesn't show up, it may be that your USB-serial device doesn't have a
driver in the server's kernel.

You would then go into your /etc/inittab and put something like this,
assuming you use getty:

T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyUSB0 9600 vt100

Replace ttyUSB0 with the appropriate device node.  At least on Debian,
there are some helpful comments in the file to make it easy to
understand.  You'll have to reboot or otherwise work back through some
runlevels.  Read the man pages for inittab and getty to get some more
thorough insights into this.

Disclaimer: I am also just telling you how I would try to do this if I
had to, and I have not actually verified that this works.  :-)  If I
have steered you wrong, please let me know!

- nps

-- 
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying
to find easier ways to do something." - Robert A. Heinlein