Setup minicom for mini2440

For windows, it is recommended to use Hyperterminal for serial port communication. In order to develop under linux via nfs, a terminal software 'Minicom' is installed and applied instead of Hyperterminal. The USB to serial adapter is used for my laptop. The following items are related for Minicom.

• Install minicom package
• Check if there is active serial ports:

>dmesg | grey tty

[    0.004000] console [tty0] enabled

[    1.174860] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

[ 2237.927394] usb 3-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

• Check read/write permissions on /dev/ttyUSB0 file:

>ls -la /dev | grep ttyUSB0

crw-rw----  1 root dialout 188,   0 2009-10-10 13:59 ttyUSB0

• If the permissions are not set as above, it can be configured as below:

>chown root /dev/ttyUSB0

>chgrp dialout /dev/ttyUSB0

>chmod 660 /dev/ttyUSB0

• Add debian user in the dialout group (for me the user is 'lp')

>adduser lp dialout

• To see which users are members of the dialout group, open the /etc/group file and look for th eline beginning with dialout

>cat /etc/group | grep dialout

• Start and configure minicom under superuser mode

>minicom -s

>Select 'Select port setup'

>Change Serial Device from '/dev/ttyS1' to '/dev/ttyUSB0'

>Set Hardware Flow Control from 'Yes' to 'No'

>'Save setup as ...' mini2440_config'

• Start minicom using 'mini2440_config'

>minicom mini2440_config

• Leave minicom

>Ctrl A->X

IMPORTANT NOTES:
If you use a linux system in vmware, this configuration may not work. You need to

1. check if your vmware is a bridged network
2. disable your firewall in your host machine.
3. read this tutorial.