Comments | frostyw: to MacBook Pro geeks

frostyw

to MacBook Pro geeks

Jun 13, 2007 18:07

What do you all use to access serial (RS232) connections from your MacBook Pro? I picked up the Apple USB Modem last night because I'll need to be able to dial out to the out-of-band modems on all our firewalls globally. However, I've learned by experience and several threads on the Parallels forums that Apple USB Modem access from Parallels 3.0 ( Read more... )

macbook pro, geek, parallels, rs232

Comments 3

yakko June 13 2007, 22:48:14 UTC

Anything that supports the PL2303 serial should work. I think FTDI-based dongles are also supported without additional software.

I have this Hawking H-UC232S dongle that's PL2303. You'll have to get the driver and install it to make it work. /dev/tty.usbserial should show up. Or, if you want to use it in Windows, DON'T install the MacOS X driver and instead connect it in Parallels and install the Windows driver. Hook up a modem or whatever after that.

Is there a Parallels that lets me attach USB devices that are being used by MacOS X? Because I can't use USB devices the Mac has drivers for within Parallels.

frostyw June 14 2007, 00:36:44 UTC

So, what do you use for actual terminal emulation software to connect to those serial connections?

As for sharing devices, I'm using Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac. If I connect a device when Parallels is active, it asks me if I want to automatically connect the device in Windows. If I say yes, the device disappears from the Mac and appears in Windows. At least that's my experience so far.

With the Apple USB Modem, I'm understanding it's a driver issue, 'cause someone has found a way to fake it out by using a different Motorola modem driver very successfully.

yakko June 14 2007, 03:32:01 UTC

I'm not sure what MacOS X native apps there are, but if you have Fink installed, you can just "apt-get install minicom" and use minicom. Or, if you have Fink and X11 installed, PuTTY for Unix should build, and the latest version has serial support.

You may be able to use minicom without having Fink installed, too; I just didn't check into that.

As soon as I upgraded Parallels, it notified me there was 3.0 out (for only $50, natch). I'll probably upgrade it if I can use some of my native USB devices in Windows.