Hi. I'm trying to connect up my Debian Wheezy netbook to a cisco console on a Catalyst 3750. The rollover cable connects to a Keyspan USA-19QW, which converts to USB. Apparently this keyspan is so old, that the firmware isn't available even in Wheezy nonfree. (I think the newer ones are.) Since I'm not really happy with using nonfree firmware anyway, I'm wondering if there is some other serial to USB adapter brand out there I could buy that would work out of the box. The HCL list here isn't too helpful because it is organized by brand name, and I don't know what brand name I'm looking for.

Update: A local shop has one of these Manhattan 205146 adapters for $25, which are supposedly Linux friendly out of the box:

http://www.manhattan-products.com/us...ial-converter#

Thought I'd give that a try.

In general it can be difficult to find compatible devices since it really depends on the chipset which manufactures change but use the same part number. I'm not familiar with this particular adapter but did find reviews that indicated it worked with linux.

One of the most common chipsets used in serial adapters is the Prolific 2303. Been around a long time so should be plug and play. I know Startech and syba use the pl2303 as well as those at Radio Shack (US electronic store).

Just want to mention that the Manhattan 205146 worked out of the box with Debian Wheezy. Looks like it uses the "pl2303: Prolific PL2303 USB to serial adaptor driver".