Fortunately (not unfortunately) the aluminum G4 PowerBook does not include a built in serial communications port. However, I found a Tripp Lite male USB to DB9 serial adapter cable in storage and decided to see if I could make it work with my Wheezy install to configure a couple of brand new Cisco routers that will consolidate a bit of our spoke and hub network design. In short, just another way to make this old PowerBook useful in my everyday life.
Not knowing if it would work without any extra configuration or drivers, I decided to just plug it in and see what would happen. But wait, what would I use to configure the serial communications interface and settings such as setting the bps rate etc? Luckily, it's a well documented procedure. It required a quick install of minicom and some very simple and straightforward initial configurations. Since there are PCMCIA serial adapters available, I should be able to also use my 1400CS to do the same thing, once I have put it into production.
Once minicom is installed, you'll want to run
sudo minicom -s to start terminal emulation. This should bring up the software's configuration menu. To start, you'll first want to arrow down to Serial port setup, hit Enter and then tap the A key to configure the filesystem location of the serial device you'll be using for your serial com port connections. Since I was using the USB to serial adapter, mine was located at /dev/ttyUSB0. Depending on your system and which USB port you use, this device may vary. The fastest way to determine the device name is to change directories into the /dev folder and do an ls -alh | grep ttyUSB. It will almost always be ttyUSB0 though, so no worries there. Once you have set the correct device location, hit Enter to be able to choose a different menu option. Depending on the device you are connecting to (be that a router, switch, server, modem, etc) you may need to also adjust the Bps/Par/Bits setting to something other than the default 9600, which happens to be what you usually set it to in most cases. You'll also want to consult the vendor documentation of the device you are connecting with to see whether or not Hardware and/or Software control need to be on or off. When you are finished, hit Enter again and arrow down to Save set up as df1and hit Enter again. This should bring you back to the initial configuration menu, so go ahead and arrow down to Exit and hit Enter twice more. You should now see communication with the attached device.
When you are finished, you can exit the
minicom session by simply hitting Command + A, and then hitting the "x" key. This should return you to your expected shell prompt. Now have at it and enjoy another practical everyday use for your ole PowerPC machine.And finally, in Debian PPC related news, I filed my first Debian bug report #757015 (well an extension to an existing one confirming I had the same issue) against the PPC Iceweasel package. It's a small subtle issue resting among many in a deep sea of Iceweasel bugs, but apparently one other individual has ran into the same issue. In short, my synced XMarks folders do not appear in the Bookmarks toolbar. It's not an XMarks issue because even just creating a simple folder and placing it in the Bookmarks toolbar does not work. I tried it with a brand new and clean profile as well with the same results. However, when viewing my bookmarks via Command + B, it shows the folders as being on the Bookmarks toolbar. Web page bookmarks still appear and work as expected and it's not due to my only other extension I have installed, which is AdBlock. I don't have high hopes for the bug being squashed, but at least it is out there.
Speaking of bugs, you may want to join the bug reporting party over at PowerPCLiberation. We need to do our part in whatever we can to improve the Linux PPC experience and platform!
Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts in the comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment