What you will learn
In this article, you will learn how you can use your Ubuntu Linux machine to open a serial console on a cisco device.
Requirements
- Privileged access to your Ubuntu machine
- A serial cable
Conventions
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo
command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
How to proceed
Install screen
In this step you need to install screen
, a program that will allow you to open the serial console fo your cisco device.
$ sudo apt install screen
Connect the serial cable
After having installed screen
, you can connect your serial cable to the cisco device and to your computer.
The next step will consist in determining the port of the serial cable:
$ sudo dmesg | grep -i tty

In our case, the device port is
ttyUSB0
.
Connect to serial console
Now you can open a console session to your cisco device:
$ screen /dev/ttyUSB0
You will need to type Enter
to get the cisco device prompt.