I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? I don't want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI emulation with screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not full ANSI, just cursor-moving escape codes and the like. Cheers -- Syd
ANSI terminal emulators for linux
Started by ●November 2, 2016
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:22:25 +0000, Syd Rumpo wrote:> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 > emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB > converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. > > What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? I don't > want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI emulation with > screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not full ANSI, just > cursor-moving escape codes and the like. > > CheersI use minicom. It is, oddly enough, a command-line utility -- but none of the graphics-based ones that I've tried are good plain-old terminals. I'd prefer something that has a point-and-click interface (with a window to type in), but none of those touch Minicom for ease of use, even including the fact that I don't like having to memorize all the stupid control-this, control-that to make it work (I just remember ctrl-X to get a command line, and H to get "help", which is a menuing system). minicom -b 38400 -D /dev/ttyUSB0 -- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com I'm looking for work -- see my website!
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 2016-11-02, Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> wrote:> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide > ANSI/VT100 emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial > USB converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. > > What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7?I recommend ckermit, which isn't a terminal emulator, just a rock-solid serial comm program. You can run it in any terminal emulator you want (linux console, xterm, aterm, rxvt, urxvt, gnome-terminal, kterm, screen, ...)> I don't want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI > emulation with screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not > full ANSI, just cursor-moving escape codes and the like.I prefer the Unix approach of one-function-one-program -- separating the serial comms from the terminal emulation. But, if you want something that's pointy-clicky-all-in-one, there's always putty: http://www.putty.org/ A lot of people use minicom, but I find its UI utterly abhorrent. -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I brought my BOWLING at BALL -- and some DRUGS!! gmail.com
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On Wed, 02 Nov 2016 18:12:52 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote:> On 2016-11-02, Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> wrote: > >> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 >> emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB >> converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. >> >> What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? > > I recommend ckermit, which isn't a terminal emulator, just a rock-solid > serial comm program. You can run it in any terminal emulator you want > (linux console, xterm, aterm, rxvt, urxvt, gnome-terminal, kterm, > screen, ...)This throws me, and I'm sorry I didn't mention it. In Windows-land, a "terminal emulator" is a program that makes your computer emulate a serial terminal. In Unix-land, a "terminal emulator" is a program that runs under X and emulates the serial terminal that the operating system was originally designed to talk to. So, they're two entirely different things with the same name. The thing known in Windows-land as a "terminal emulator" is known in Unix- land as a "serial communications program". The Unix-land "terminal emulator" is the Windows-land "DOS window" or perhaps "command-line window".>> I don't want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI >> emulation with screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not >> full ANSI, just cursor-moving escape codes and the like. > > I prefer the Unix approach of one-function-one-program -- separating the > serial comms from the terminal emulation. But, if you want something > that's pointy-clicky-all-in-one, there's always putty: > > http://www.putty.org/I tried putty and really didn't like it. I can't remember why, just that the features available didn't make me happy.> A lot of people use minicom, but I find its UI utterly abhorrent.I'll have to try ckermit. Minicom works for me, but only because I have a basic strategy of getting into the "help" menu and navigating (sometimes with lots of iteration and cussing) to what I need. -- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com I'm looking for work -- see my website!
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 11/2/2016 10:22 AM, Syd Rumpo wrote:> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 emulation > for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB converters. It's not > unusual to have six running at once. > > What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? I don't want > lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI emulation with screens to > type in and display text stuff. It's not full ANSI, just cursor-moving escape > codes and the like.I don't run Linux -- but screen(1) is a viable option under *BSD. I imagine if not available as a prebuilt package for your distro, you could just build from source. Run it in an xterm or from one of the consoles. Plumb it to tip(1), as appropriate. It has the added advantage that you can hot-key between multiple "sessions" in that same "window" (or console). IIRC, you can also subdivide the "display" to show two or more sessions *in* that single window. Far too many capabilities to describe how it can be exploited, here.
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 11/2/2016 11:37 AM, Don Y wrote:> It has the added advantage that you can hot-key between multiple > "sessions" in that same "window" (or console). IIRC, you can also > subdivide the "display" to show two or more sessions *in* that > single window.Hint: if you opt to exploit the multiple sessions capability, set the foreground/background colors of each "screen" to something you can easily recognize: "Ah, this is red so it must be screen #2" This makes keeping track of the associated hot-key much easier!
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 2016-11-02, Tim Wescott <seemywebsite@myfooter.really> wrote:> I'll have to try ckermit. Minicom works for me, but only because I have > a basic strategy of getting into the "help" menu and navigating > (sometimes with lots of iteration and cussing) to what I need.In CKermit it's ctrl-\ to get to the ckermit prompt, and then it's all commands like "set baud 9600" "set parity none" etc. IMO, the easiest way to use ckermit is to define an initialization file for your most commonly used configuration and then write a small shellscript for each configuration that invokes ckermit with the proper initialization file. My default config file looks like this: set port /dev/ttyS0 set baud 115200 set flow none set parity none set carrier-watch off log session connect So that's what I get if I just type "kermit". -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! Should I get locked at in the PRINCICAL'S gmail.com OFFICE today -- or have a VASECTOMY??
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 2016-11-02, Tim Wescott <seemywebsite@myfooter.really> wrote:> On Wed, 02 Nov 2016 18:12:52 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote: > >> On 2016-11-02, Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> wrote: >> >>> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 >>> emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB >>> converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. >>> >>> What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? >> >> I recommend ckermit, which isn't a terminal emulator, just a rock-solid >> serial comm program. You can run it in any terminal emulator you want >> (linux console, xterm, aterm, rxvt, urxvt, gnome-terminal, kterm, >> screen, ...) > > This throws me, and I'm sorry I didn't mention it. In Windows-land, a > "terminal emulator" is a program that makes your computer emulate a > serial terminal. In Unix-land, a "terminal emulator" is a program that > runs under X and emulates the serial terminal that the operating system > was originally designed to talk to. So, they're two entirely different > things with the same name.Well, they're not entirely different. Both of them emulate a vt52, or vt102, or ANSI, or Wyse50, or Tek4014[1], or whatever inside a graphical window. The Windows version _also_ handles serial-port (and often network) communications. The X version just talks to a pty (which is sort of a dumbed-down minimalist virtual serial port that connects two programs together) and leaves the actual serial-port stuff to be handled by whatever is connected to the other end of the pty. Then you can connect the other end of the pty to ckermit, tip, cu, telnet, ssh, rsh, nc, or anything else you want to use to provide a byte-stream connection to the applicatoin that's expecting to talk to a "terminal". [1] Yes, xterm will still emulate a Tektronix 4014 storage-scope vector graphics terminal [except, sadly, there's no bright-green flash when the screen is erased -- I've always wanted to add that...] -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! It's some people at inside the wall! This is gmail.com better than mopping!
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 02/11/16 18:22, Syd Rumpo wrote:> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 > emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB > converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. > > What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? I don't > want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI emulation with > screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not full ANSI, just > cursor-moving escape codes and the like. >Like Don, I use screen (with Linux, rather than BSD). Using different colours for the windows is not a bad idea at all. screen /dev/ttySerial_hub2 115200 It doesn't get much easier than that. (It is not quite as flexible in its serial parameters as something like minicom - but you don't usually need that.) A /really/ nice thing you can do in Linux is use udev rules to set up rules for USB components. For example, I have a 4-port hub connected to one of my PC's USB ports. I have some lines in a udev rules file like this: KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", DEVPATH=="*/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.0/*", SYMLINK += "ttySerial_hub2" KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", DEVPATH=="*/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.1/*", SYMLINK += "ttySerial_hub2b" KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", DEVPATH=="*/usb2/2-1/2-1.3/2-1.3:1.0/*", SYMLINK += "ttySerial_hub3" KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", DEVPATH=="*/usb2/2-1/2-1.3/2-1.3:1.1/*", SYMLINK += "ttySerial_hub3b" Any USB to serial converter I attach to port 2 of the hub turns up as device /dev/ttySerial_hub2, as well as the standard /dev/ttyUSB0. If it is a two channel converter, the second one is "hub2b". I have similar rules for physical ports 1 to 4 on the hub. You can also have rules that match on serial number of the converter regardless of the port, exact type of converter (TTL, RS-232, RS-485, etc.), or combinations. Rules can make multiple symlink names, change access permissions, and so on. It is vastly easier than Windows assigning different COM port numbers for each device and changing it according to the physical port, the hubs, the weather, etc., so that you never know if you should be using COM94 or COM16.
Reply by ●November 2, 20162016-11-02
On 11/2/2016 1:22 PM, Syd Rumpo wrote:> I use multiple instances of TeraTerm in Windows to provide ANSI/VT100 > emulation for embedded processor diagnostics using serial USB > converters. It's not unusual to have six running at once. > > What are my best options in Linux, specifically Peppermint 7? I don't > want lots of clutter, just setup to eg 38k4 baud, ANSI emulation with > screens to type in and display text stuff. It's not full ANSI, just > cursor-moving escape codes and the like.Linux is a bit odd in that a command window *is* a terminal emulator. It just isn't connected to a serial port. I ran into this problem when I was working with a Raspberry Pi to use as a remote interface to an embedded MCU board. I seem to recall miniterm had some problems with the end of line character conversion. I can't recall what I used, it may have been picoterm. The ones I found were all a bit crude and every single one had some sort of significant limitation. I don't recall what I used to use under windows, but in the "old" days it seemed there were plenty and they worked well. Now it seems to be harder to find them and they don't work as well. By that I mean the user interface is not as good. -- Rick C