What's a pfSense equivalent to standard linux minicom?

MrPete

I'm attempting to diagnose the setup for a wonderful if somewhat aged APC SU1000 (Smart 1000) UPS. It uses a 2400N81 weird serial cable protocol.

I can talk to it directly from Linux, using the simple "minicom" comms package.
I have yet to make pfSense (or apcupsd, or nut) talk with it successfully.

So, for diagnostic purposes I'm looking for an equivalent simple "serial port terminal" application that works in the pfSense environment.

Any ideas?

While I'm at it... further checking over time has just revealed a second question. I haven't found any documentation on this:

How do I permanently configure a change to /etc/ttys?

(pfSense replaces my edits with a default value)

MrPete

Well, I failed to answer my original question, but solved the issue anyway.

Perhaps the following will be helpful to others:

I am running pfSense in a VM on ProxMox (actually a pair of ProxMox, and pfSense in HA/CARP)
Turns out the underlying issue is with the Serial Port passing to VM

By default, ProxMox passes a serial port as a virtualized/socket. That doesn't work (at least with UPS's)

Solution is in ProxMox: don't add serial in GUI. Instead, from shell use

qm set <vmid> serial /dev/tty_device_name  (eg ttyS0)

Then disable/enable nut and all is well. (Device is /dev/cuau0 -- the only available option)

stephenw10

I use cu in that situation. It's in pfSense by default.

[22.01-RC][admin@6100.stevew.lan]/root: cu -l cuaU0 -s 115200
Connected

Steve

JKnott

@mrpete said in What's a pfSense equivalent to standard linux minicom?:

It uses a 2400N81 weird serial cable protocol.

That isn't weird, it's just slow. My pfsense box runs 8N1 @115.6K. 8N1 is pretty much standard for anything faster than the 110B you'd find on a Teletype machine. That's 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

BTW, I started in telecom as a bench tech overhauling Teletype machines, where the ASCII models ran 110B, 2 stop bits and odd, even or no parity, depending on configuration. I also worked on Baudot machines which ran as slow as 45.4B and 1.42 stop bits. They didn't have a parity bit. Data rates were measured in Baud (B), which at those speeds was equivalent to bits per second (b/s).

Also, there is a minicom for FreeBSD. I don't know if it will install on pfsense though, as it doesn't run the full FreeBSD.

MrPete

@stephenw10 Thanks! cu is perfect for this :)

MrPete

@jknott said in What's a pfSense equivalent to standard linux minicom?:

It uses a 2400N81 weird serial cable protocol.

That isn't weird, it's just slow.

It's the cable that's weird ;) -- Designed so if you plug in a standard 9 pin serial, the UPS shuts down

My pfsense box runs 8N1 @115.6K. 8N1 is pretty much standard for anything faster than the 110B you'd find on a Teletype machine. That's 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

BTW, I started in telecom as a bench tech overhauling Teletype machines, where the ASCII models ran 110B...

Oh how I know! I used the Teletype and other slow links...we had one at home for my dad's R&D work when I was in jr/sr high school. Graduated to a 300 baud Silent 700 after a while. I had unlimited remote access to the mainframe.
Pushed that and paper tape and punch cards out of the way during college. Built a bunch of "glass teletypes" -- adm-3a -- for our university Low Overhead Timeshare System. (They sold as a kit for $200 less than pre-built... paid me $50 to assemble. They assumed $3 an hour and 16 hours, but soon I had that reversed: 3 hr build time, so $16 an hour. Not bad pay for a freshman in 1975 :) )