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Activating the Serial Port on FreeBSD

Introduction

By default, the serial port is not activated. If you have a Soekris device, for example, it's essential to activate it. Let's see how to do this.

Configuration

To activate the standard output on the serial port (only stdout):

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echo "-h" > /boot.config

Alternatively, you can choose to activate the serial port only if no keyboard is connected to the machine:

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echo "-P" > /boot.config

Next, you'll need to configure the stdin part (keyboard) by enabling this line by changing it to "on":

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# /etc/ttys
[...]
# Serial terminals
# The 'dialup' keyword identifies dialin lines to login, fingerd etc.
ttyu0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   dialup  on secure
[...]

Reboot and then all you need to do is connect to it.

References