I'm new.
Can anyone tell me how to console into a Cisco switch with Red Hat 9? I would like to use a GUI that is somewhat similar to SecureCRT if possiable. Anything built-in to redhat for this?

Thanks,

Jesse

If you're just looking for a terminal program..., i.e. to use telnet, ssh, etc. There are many The standard transports are available, telnet, ssh, ftp, etc...

1. xterm - should be on all distros.
2. konsole - KDE desktop.
3. gnome-terminal - Gnome desktop
4. Many more...

I'm not sure about Cisco switches but I use telnet to configure my Cisco router. "telnet <ip.to.router>". Of course telnet is limited to my local IP address range

Mike

Yeah I know I can telnet....I need to console into a Cisco router/switch via a serial port and console cable....one would think this should be pretty easy to do and I'm sure it probably is but it hassn't proven easy to find. I like Red Hat 9 but it's got a long way to go before people will really start using it for reasons like this....why does everything take 9 more steps to accomplish than it would on a windows box??

Thanks for your help!

-Frustrated Red Hat 9 user

Hi,

I use minicom, it should come with RH9. It is a simple effective little tool. I use it to configure my cisco routers/switches at work from my laptop.

Jeff

I have tried it...I don't know what the switches are. can you tell me what the exact command line syntex is?

Why is this a pain?

-Thank you very much!
-Jesse

jlepich hey i've started up on the linux world myself lately and it seems that there are certain configureation that you need to make sure they are set up. ie, baud 9600, data bits 8, parity none, stop bits 1, and flow control none, and they are set up in the crtl-z and "O" menu. i hope this helps, i'm still playing with it too.

I checked around this site and it seems that someone else has also asked this question but it still wasn't enough info, at least for me. I got it set up correctly from what i can tell it''s /dev/ttys0 but telling my laptop to send data though it it keeps wanting to activate the modem. am i over looking something? i think the key stokes were, crtl-a --> shift-m but that can't be right...

Once you are in minicom, type Ctrl-A and then Z to get the command summary.

/dev/ttys0 but telling my laptop to send data though it it keeps wanting to activate the modem.

Maybe the cable is on /dev/ttys1? Have you tried others? What does minicom do?

Have you tried seyon? It's a "primitve" X windows serial port program. Haven't tried for ages, but it's still on my machine (thanks debian).

Yeah i tried each of the ttysX and the boot up says the ttsy0 for pci. But when i use the setserial and the statserial i get and i/o error, and the file(s) aren't locked. I checked the command summery but how do you activate the serial port in minicom. i can tell you it's not the modem because it's a console cabe for my cisco router....this isn't supposed to be this hard.

The ports should be /dev/ttyS0 or S1 or S2 .... - S in caps.

thanks but i'm still stuck. is there a gnome app of something that does anything like minicom? i'm a converting windoze user so i need a gui...shameful i know

I'm new to linux, and I enjoy using it because their is so much help out there for it, such as these forums. But at times like this when something as "i think should be" simple no one knows crap. I've been trying to understand how to connect to my cisco switch using my linux box via minicom and I don't get shi... This is why I still have that "Trusty" windows xp box with TeraTerm Pro installed

For anyone wanting to connect using a GUI, try GtkTerm. This works beautifully in Ubuntu and I'm sure it works with just about every other distro, too (GNOME libraries required but you don't need to be running GNOME itself).

I love the simplicity of the interface but admittedly it is a bit light on features. I have 7 pieces of Cisco gear but only 6 serial ports. I have a startup script for GtkTerm. It basically runs 6 instances and uses wmctrl to maximise all windows and also rename each one... so instead of 6 windows all called GtkTerm, I have named them R1 on ttyS1, R2 on ttyS2, etc. You can find it as an attachment with the post I've linked to below.

For a more detailed explanation of wmctrl and GtkTerm, you can read my post about configuring my MCS9865 based 6-port serial card in Ubuntu. Turns out that is a simple configuration tweak as well. The 2.6 kernel series usually allows for only 4 UARTs until you pass a kernel parameter asking for more. I'm sure this will be of great use for anyone with more than 4 devices.

MCS9865 post with Cisco lab specific tips re: wmctrl and GtkTerm: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1663575

Regards,

hcfd.

@hcfd : could you guide me " how to install GtkTerm in centOs 7 .