Sitara Linux SDK Configuring a serial connection

If you chose not to use the setup.sh script (or START_HERE.sh) to configure you connection you can always perform the following steps to configure a serial connection with the board.

• The following steps will help you validate that you have a valid serial connection with your target board

  IMPORTANT
  
  These steps are written for boards like the EVM-SK and Beaglebone which use an FTDI USB-to-Serial adapter. For boards with a straight UART connection you can ignore the steps for /dev/ttyUSBx and instead just use the serial port on your Linux host that is connected to the board

• Connect the USB cable between your Linux host and your target board

  IMPORTANT
  
  On the AM335x EVM-SK, the USB cable enables a USB-to-serial interface to the Linux host PC. If using a virtual machine, please insure the AM335x EVM-SK is a selected USB device.

  NOTE
  
  If you are running your VMWare image with Windows 7 some USB-to-Serial adapters do not properly work with Windows 7. Make sure that your adapter specifically says that it supports Windows 7. You may also need to install an additional driver for your adapter.

• Open a terminal and run the following command to find the USB serial adapters available on the system. The FTDI chip used on the board presents two serial interfaces to the Linux host. The first interface is the JTAG interface and the second one is the serial console interface.

  ls /dev/ttyUSB*

  You should see output like:

  /dev/ttyUSB0

  /dev/ttyUSB1

  NOTE
  
  If using VMWare you may need to pass the "Future Technology Devices" device into the VMWare image

• As mentioned above since the board's serial interface is the second interface you will want to open a serial console to the second device node. In this case that is /dev/ttyUSB1. This can be done by doing:
  • minicom -w -s
  • Select Serial port setup and press ENTER
  • Press A to modify the Serial Device and change the device to /dev/ttyUSB1. Press ENTER
  • Press ENTER to exit the serial setup
  • Select Exit and press ENTER
• You should now see a minicom window.
• Power on the board, you should see "ccccc" being printed in the window, if so the serial connection is working as expected. Go ahead and leave this console RUNNING in the background.

  NOTE
  
  For the EVM-SK board the power button is under the board in the upper-right hand corner. You must press and hold this button to power on the board.

  NOTE
  
  For the Beaglebone the board will power on as soon as the USB cable is connected. you can reset the board by pressing the reset button which should provide you with the expected output