Chapter 18 Serial Communications

Table of Contents
18.1 Synopsis
18.2 Introduction
18.3 Terminals
18.4 Dial-in Service
18.5 Dial-out Service
18.6 Setting Up the Serial Console

18.1 Synopsis

UNIX® has always had support for serial communications. In fact, the very first UNIX machines relied on serial lines for user input and output. Things have changed a lot from the days when the average ``terminal'' consisted of a 10-character-per-second serial printer and a keyboard. This chapter will cover some of the ways in which FreeBSD uses serial communications.

After reading this chapter, you will know:

How to connect terminals to your FreeBSD system.
How to use a modem to dial out to remote hosts.
How to allow remote users to login to your system with a modem.
How to boot your system from a serial console.

Before reading this chapter, you should:

Know how to configure and install a new kernel (Chapter 9).
Understand UNIX permissions and processes (Chapter 3).
Have access to the technical manual for the serial hardware (modem or multi-port card) that you would like to use with FreeBSD.