[ale] USB to Serial adapters

Chris Fowler cfowler at outpostsentinel.com
Wed Jun 18 13:55:10 EDT 2008


Mostly consoles.  ALL of my Linux servers are headless.  If we use any 
KVM it is for Windows only.  We don't really use many windows machines 
on our office.

We also serially control intelligent power with the servers.  Basically 
the only time I have to go to E-Deltacomm is to touch a server with my 
hands.

Jeff Lightner wrote:
> Back when I first started on UNIX nearly everything was serial so people
> used dedicated ports boards (DigiBoard, Stallion, Computone etc...) for
> terminals, printers, modems etc...   I also saw a lot of system
> interfaces that required serial connections.
>
> I'm just curious what people are doing these days that requires multiple
> serial ports.  For most of what I've been doing for the 10 years or so
> the only real use for serial was console and modems and even that isn't
> extensive due to KVMs and the like.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Daniel Kahn Gillmor
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 11:57 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] USB to Serial adapters
>
> On Wed 2008-06-18 10:13:20 -0400, Ken Cochran wrote:
>
>   
>> Any recommendations (maybe a FAQ/site/info) for *supported*
>> and/or recommended USB-to-serial adapters for Linux/BSD/MacOSX?
>>     
>
> the Prolific chipset ("pl2303") is far and away the most stable one of
> these i've ever used.  It works well on Linux.  i've never tried it on
> *BSD or OSX, but a google search looks promising [0] [1].
>
> If you're setting up a rig with a lot of serial ports, my notes for
> doing that [2] include an 8-port USB pl2303-based adapter (which i've
> never used, but i'd love to hear any experiences with it).
>
> When i was writing up my notes on setting up an all-solid-state mini
> machine [3], i found a pl2303 adapter for about $18 [4].
>
> It's often difficult to find a vendor who publishes what chipset
> you'll get in their devices, which is pretty aggravating.  However, it
> doesn't hurt to ask, either.
>
> hth,
>
>         --dkg
>
> [0] http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=uplcom&section=4
> [1]
> http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/pl2303usbtoserialdriver.ht
> ml
> [2] http://cmrg.fifthhorseman.net/wiki/cereal#hardware
> [3] http://cmrg.fifthhorseman.net/wiki/embedded/alix/purchasing
> [4] http://www.beaglesoft.com/232usb.htm
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