Serial setup with C-Kermit

When you work with embedded devices (e.g. SabreLite, Arduino, Raspberry Pi) you often need to work over a serial port, e.g. to customize the Barebox or U-Boot boot loader.

On Linux, people often use “minicom” for this. Other options are “Putty” (yes, it’s not a Windows-only program, try “apt-get install putty”) or even the ancient C-Kermit. Surprisingly I found that Kermit suits my work-flow the best, when properly configured.

The reason: Kermit doesn’t come into my way. No menu, no interpretation of escape codes (so urxvt does that), no nothing.

Installation

On Debian, installation is as easy as:

apt-get install ckermit

Configuration

Place this into ~/.kermrc:

set line /dev/ttyS0
set baud 115200
set handshake none
set flow-control none
set carrier-watch off
set escape-character ^X
log session ~/.kermlog
connect

• set serial port (if you don’t have a real RS232, use /dev/ttyUSB0 instead)
• set baud rate. We have the year 2016, so there’s no need to run anything slower than 115200 baud nowadays. Even Windows 7 (or newer) can nowadays use this baud rate.
• turn all handshaking off. Embedded devices often only use 3 wires (RXD, TXD and GND) for their communications anyway.
• for the same reason, turn of carrier detection
• allow “Ctrl-X” as an escape character
• write a log of the whole transaction to ~/.kermlog
• and connect

Keyboard control

When I want to disconnect, I type “Ctrl-X q” (q like quit).

If i ever want to get to Kermit command prompt (which I almost never do), then “Ctrl-X c” does the trick.

Example

schurig@desktop:~$ kermit
Connecting to /dev/ttyS0, speed 115200
 Escape character: Ctrl-X (ASCII 24, CAN): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
Session Log: /home/schurig/.kermlog, text (0) 
----------------------------------------------------
Barebox: version 2015.12.0, git 2016-03.1-84-g18146e8
info: FPGA v35
info: CPU board v5
info: Front board v8
info: MIL connector board v1
info: Expansion board v0
info: strap-id forces DVB2A/BUCK2 for LCD
info: PIC .10:  boot v0.0, application v0.6

Interrupt boot with any command:  3

Helpful commands:

	help  and  help <COMMAND>
	boot sdcard
	boot emmc

barebox:/