Linux Port Monitor
Linux Monitor Serial Port
Serial Terminal For Ubuntu

An Arch Linux machine can be configured for connections via the serial console port, which enables administration of a machine even if it has no keyboard, mouse, monitor, or network attached to it.

This screencast demonstrates installation and basic usage of the Serial Monitor plugin in IO Ninja for Linux http://ioninja.com/plugins/serial-monitor.html.

Installation of Arch Linux is possible via the serial console as well.

The easiest way to connect to a serial console over USB is to use some software that is already built for that purpose. PuTTy, MobaXTerm, GNU Screen, Android Serial Console, Android Serial USB Terminal, and Arduino IDE are examples of software you can use. Let's look at some examples of how to do this in Windows, Linux.
ScriptCommunicator is a scriptable cross-platform data terminal which supports serial port (RS232, USB to serial), UDP, TCP client/server, SPI, I2C and CAN. All sent and received data can be shown in a console and can be logged in an html and a text log.
The Serial Monitor is a separate pop-up window that acts as a separate terminal that communicates by receiving and sending Serial Data. See the icon on the far right of the image above. Serial Data is sent.
Download Q Serial Terminal for free. Basic serial (RS232) terminal program. This project has moved to GitHub. Search for QST there.

A basic environment for this scenario is two machines connected using a serial cable (9-pin connector cable).The administering machine can be any Unix/Linux or Windows machine with a terminal emulator program (PuTTY or Minicom, for example).

The configuration instructions below will enable boot loader menu selection, boot messages, and terminal forwarding to the serial console.

Configure console access on the target machine

Boot loader

GRUB

When using GRUB with a generated grub.cfg, edit /etc/default/grub and enable serial input and output support:

Next add the GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND variable and set the options for the serial connection. For COM1 (/dev/ttyS0) with baud rate of 115200 bit/s:

Read GRUB's manual on Using GRUB via a serial line and the serial command for detailed explanation of the available options.

GRUB Legacy

Edit the GRUB Legacy configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst and add these lines to the general area of the configuration:

Note: When the terminal --timeout=5 serial console line is added to your menu.lst, your boot sequence will now show a series of Press any key to continue messages. If no key is pressed, the boot menu will appear on whichever (serial or console) appears first in the terminal configuration line.

rEFInd

rEFInd supports serial console only in text mode. Edit refind.conf and uncomment textonly.

Syslinux

To enable serial console in Syslinux, edit syslinux.cfg and add SERIAL as the first directive in the configuration file.

For COM1 (/dev/ttyS0) with baud rate of 115200 bit/s:

The serial parameters are hardcoded to 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.[1]. Read Syslinux Wiki:Config#SERIAL for the directive's options.

Kernel

Kernel's output can be sent to serial console by setting the console=kernel parameter. The last specified console= will be set as /dev/console.

See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/serial-console.html.

getty

At boot, systemd-getty-generator(8) will start a getty instance for each console specified in the kernel command line.

If you have not configured console= in kernel command line startserial-getty@device.service. For /dev/ttyS0 (COM1) that would be serial-getty@ttyS0.service. Enable the service to start it at boot.

Unless specified otherwise in the kernel command line, getty will be expecting 38400 bit/s baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit-times.

Making Connections

Connect using a terminal emulator program

Note: Before making a connection, it is recommended to add your user to the uucp group. Otherwise you will need root's permission to make a connection:See Users and groups#User groups for details.

Linux Port Monitor

Perform these steps on the machine used to connect the remote console.

Command line

dterm

dterm^AUR is a tiny serial communication program. If you invoke it without parameters, it will connect to /dev/ttyS0 at 9600 baud by default. The following example connect to /dev/ttyS0 at 115200 baud, with 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit-times:

See its homepage[2] for more examples.

Minicom

minicom can be obtained from the official repositories. Start Minicom in setup mode:

Using the textual navigation menu, change the serial port settings to the following:

Press Enter to exit the menus (pressing Esc will not save changes).Remove the modem Init and Reset strings, as we are not connecting to a modem. To do this, under the Modem and Dialing menu, delete the Init and Reset strings. Optionally save the configuration by choosing save setup as dfl from the main menu.Restart minicom with the serial cable connected to the target machine.To end the session, press Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+X.

picocom

picocom is a tiny dumb-terminal emulation program that is very like minicom, but instead of mini, it is pico. The following example connect to ttyS0 at 9600 bps:

Note: if the backspace key won't work properly try out this option: '--omap delbs'

See its manual for detailed usage.

Screen

GNU Screen is able to connect to a serial port. It will connect at 9600 baud by default:

A different baud rate (e.g. 115200) may be specified on the command line.

To end the session, press Ctrl+a followed by K. Alternatively, press Ctrl+a, type :quit and confirm it by pressing Enter.

Serialclient

Serialclient[3] is a CLI client for serial connection written in ruby. Install ruby package, then install it with the following:

Then, you can use like this:

And, for Windows

On Windows machines, connect to the serial port using programs like PuTTY[4] or Terminalbpp[5].

Graphical front-ends

cutecom^AUR is another gui enabled serial monitor.

putty is also available for Linux.

moserial is a gtk-based serial terminal, primarily intended for technical users and hardware hackers who need to communicate with embedded systems, test equipment, and serial consoles.

Installing Arch Linux using the serial console

Note: The Arch Linux monthly release(i.e. the installation CD)'s boot loader has been configured[6] to listen on 0 port(ttyS0/COM1) at 38400 bps, with 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit-times.

Connect to the target machine using the method described above.
Boot the target machine using the Arch Linux installation CD.
When the bootloader appears, select Boot Arch Linux (<arch>) and press Tab to edit
Append console=ttyS0,38400 and press Enter.
Now systemd should detect ttyS0 and spawn a serial getty on it. Login as root and start the installation as usual.

Note: After setup is complete, the console settings will not be saved on the target machine; in order to avoid having to connect a keyboard and monitor, configure console access on the target machine before rebooting.

Serial Monitor Linux Terminal