Terminal Emulation
With utilities PuTTY or Minicom, you can communicate from the host machine to the target board over a serial line. NVIDIA recommends you to use the “putty” terminal emulation program for better display of the setup prompts, but information is also provided on options to improve display of setup prompts.
In addition to Minicom, you can use Android Debug Bridge (adb) to communicate with your platform. adb is an open-source, Android debug tool that communicates over USB.
It is recommended to use the tcu_muxer utility to demultiplex the console output from the virtualized processors to be able to connect to the Guest OS and other VM consoles. If the tcu_muxer is not used, it is possible that input at the console may be corrupted.
Determining the USB Port and Serial ID
This topic explains how to get the USB port number and serial number port settings of your target device. Use this information to configure Minicom, depending on your product.
On Linux hosts, USB serial ports typically appear as:
/dev/ttyUSB<number>
Where <number> is the port number.
Applies to: Releases supporting Windows:
In Cygwin, USB serial ports appear as one of the /dev/ttyS<n> files. In general, a Windows COMx port corresponds to a /dev/ttyS<x-1> file in Cygwin. For example, COM1 corresponds to /dev/ttyS0.
A host machine may contain internal hardware for serial ports that have no external connector. So, if the host machine contains one normal serial connector in the back of the machine and one hidden internal serial port, then the serial port on the back can appear as /dev/ttyS2 not /dev/ttyS1.
The device USB port numbers and serial IDs are as follows:
• Aurix Safety MCU: /dev/ttyUSB3
• Xavier A and B: Use the output of the tcu_muxer utility to get the virtual console for the Guest OS. For example, in the example below the Guest OS console is /dev/pts/31.
/dev/pts/26 RCE
/dev/pts/27 BPMP
/dev/pts/28 SCE
/dev/pts/29 SPE
/dev/pts/30 TZ
/dev/pts/31 CCPLEX: 0
/dev/pts/32 CCPLEX: 1
/dev/pts/33 CCPLEX: 2
/dev/pts/34 CCPLEX: 3
/dev/pts/35 CCPLEX: 4
/dev/pts/36 CCPLEX: 5
/dev/pts/37 CCPLEX: 6
/dev/pts/38 CCPLEX: 7
/dev/pts/39 CCPLEX: 8
/dev/pts/40 CCPLEX: 9
/dev/pts/41 CCPLEX: 10
/dev/pts/42 CCPLEX: 11
################################# 001 ##
/dev/pts/31 [Guest OS]
/dev/pts/32 [Safety service]
/dev/pts/33 [Update service]
/dev/pts/34 [BPMP Server]
/dev/pts/35 [Resource Manager Server]
/dev/pts/36 [System Manager Server]
/dev/pts/37 [Storage Server]
/dev/pts/38 [Security Engine Server]
/dev/pts/39 [Debug Server]
/dev/pts/40 [TrustZone Server]
/dev/pts/42 [Hypervisor]
For all ports, the settings should be as follows:
baudrate 115200
bits 8
parity N
stopbits 1
rtscts No
xonxoff No
About PuTTY
PuTTY is both a serial communication program and a terminal emulator that uses the SSH or TELNET protocol. PuTTY supports the full UTF-8 character-set.
Installing PuTTY
PuTTY is installable via apt-get from Canonical mirrors. Use the following command to install PuTTY:
$ sudo apt-get install putty
PuTTY: Connect to Serial Port
Before connecting to a serial port, you must start PuTTY as a superuser (or as root user) using following command. This command opens the putty configuration dialog box.
$ sudo putty
In the above dialog box:
1. Choose Connection type as Serial.
2. In Serial line enter the USB Serial port path obtained above /dev/ttyUSB<number> or /dev/pts/<number>.
3. Enter Speed to 115200.
4. Click Open
Steps 1-3 opens a new window to receive serial data from DRIVE platform.
PuTTY: Save and Load sessions
PuTTY allows users to save entered configuration into session entry which can be loaded later.
To save a session, enter the terminal settings from above section from steps 1-3 and enter in Saved Sessions box, your choice of session-name.
When putty is launched, it lists saved sessions in a list. Please click the choice of session, click load and click open. This loads and opens the chosen saved session.
About Minicom
Minicom is a serial communication program that enables an admin user to communicate using the serial port. In DRIVE OS SDK, we use to communicate from host machine to DRIVE platform.
Configuring Minicom
This topic explains how to modify the Minicom configuration file for the USB port and serial ID for your device. The default serial port settings depend on your development board. If your port differs from the default, you must modify the Minicom configuration file for your device (procedure below).
Port Settings
By default, the serial port settings are shown below. You must modify the port to the actual device for the serial port.
port /dev/ttyS0
baudrate 115200
bits 8
parity N
stopbits 1
rtscts No
xonxoff No
Running Minicom
Prerequisites
• You have modified the Minicom configuration file for your device’s USB port and serial ID.
• You have connected the device to your host system.
• The device is on and awake.
• The hardware flow control is turned off.
To run Minicom
• In a shell window, enter the following command:
sudo minicom -w -D /dev/pts/<number> -R utf8 -t xterm
The -w option enables line-wrapping, -R utf8 enables UTF-8 character set.
To configure Minicom
1. In the Minicom console, enter the following command (without spaces between the letters):
CTRL-A O
2. Scroll to “Serial port setup” and hit ENTER.
3. Enter A to enter the serial Device number.
4. Enter E to configure the speed and other comm parameters of the port.
5. When finished, hit ENTER to exit the screen. Hit ENTER again if there are no further changes to the serial port setup screen, and then scroll down to Exit to exit the configuration screen.
Toggling the Line Wrap Setting on Minicom
The Minicom command line in Running Minicom includes the -w option, which enables line wrapping. You can use the W configuration setting to change that behavior.
To toggle line wrap on/off
• In the Minicom console, enter the following command (without spaces between the letters):
CTRL-A Z W
Toggling the Line Feed Setting on Minicom
By default, Minicom enables line-wrapping. With that option, Minicom adds a line feed before every carriage return displayed on the screen.
Some terminals, have poor attribute handling (serial instead of parallel). If you are using such a terminal, you must start minicom with the following option:
-a off
Or you must toggle off the line feed, as described in the following instructions.
To toggle line feed on/off
• In the Minicom console, enter the following command (without spaces between the letters):
CTRL-A Z A