[rescue] USB<->Serial Adapters for Windows Laptops to Sun boxes

[Joshua Boyd]

On Mon, Aug 21, 2006 at 03:50:15PM -0400, Joshua Boyd wrote:

> The generic Prolific based adapters found all over the place
> (CablesToGo, Hawking, etc), should work just fine.  I can confirm that
> they work under Windows with many non-Sun machines.  I can confirm that
> they work with linux (minicom or ckermit) or Mac OS X (zTerm) with Suns.
> 
> I can also confirm that that those prolific adapters under linux don't
> deal correctly with setting parameters via stty, which has only bitten
> me when trying to write scripts to deal with redboot on the otherside of
> a serial link (specifically, I wanted a script to send commands to
> redboot, then trigger sz, send more commands, trigger sz a few more
> times, etc, to automate configuring some embedded devices without doing
> it dozens of time by hand).  This, BTW, is not a problem with the
> Prolific chips, but is instead a problem with the linux driver for them
> (specifically, the author thinks that stty for configuring serial ports
> has outlived its usefulness, so the driver resets the chip settings
> after every device close).
> 
> If you are desperate to confirm that these cheapo ($15) dongles work
> with Windows and Suns at the same time (despite knowing that they work
> on windows and Suns, but not tested together).  FWIW the dongles I've
> seen that aren't based on prolific chips tend to be a lot more expensive
> (like the Keyspan dongles).

BTW, I assume you meant RS-232.  However, I have also used the prolific
dongles with quite a bit of RS-422 and RS-485 stuff using a simple
RS-4[22,85]<->RS232 adapter.  

And Windows 2000 Updates will find the correct driver.  I haven't tested
with XP, but I expect the driver is just there for that as well.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd
jdboyd at jdboyd.net
http://www.jdboyd.net/
http://www.joshuaboyd.org/