Enabling the USB serial console ?

[prima]

Greetings,

I recently acquired a Packet Squirrel and I am trying to enable the serial console over USB.
The aim is to be able to power up the PS from my PC using the USB mini cable, AND gain console access over the same cable. This is something I routinely do with other Linux SBCs.
This would be tremendously useful when the ethernet port is not available, for instance while performing a tcpdump capture or running as a transparent bridge.

I understand that the feature seems to be enabled on other Hak5 products like the Lan Turtle. Strangely, not on the PS.

After doing some research I know that the module g_serial has to be loaded. But it's not available natively:

root@squirrel:~# modprobe g_serial
failed to find a module named g_serial

So here is what I attempted:

opkg update
opkg install kmod-usb-gadget-serial

Then this works:

modprobe g_serial

But nothing happens (the PS is powered up and tethered to my PC through the mini USB cable). Based on my research I understand I may also have to set up a tty (or getty) to listen to that USB port but still.

While reading the OpenWRT doc I found this bit:

Quote

To get this working on a Qualcomm-Atheros AR9331 device I had to install kmod-usb-chipidea instead of the kmod-usb-gadget (that was not available) and then I installed my gadget driver of choice, kmod-usb-gadget-eth.

And indeed that paragraph should apply to the PS if we look at the specifications.
So I flashed the firmware again and installed that package instead:

opkg install kmod-usb-chipidea

# and also:
opkg install kmod-usb-gadget
opkg install  kmod-usb-gadget-cdc-composite

Then I can run modprobe g_cdc, modprobe g_serial etc. But I still don't see any activity on my PC, that shows a new USB device is being mounted.

But I also found this in the docs:

Quote

The USB port you use with this feature must be native, not generated by independent controllers (connected over PCIe usually), nor by a USB hub (that has a well-defined upstream port and downstream ports).

So I am starting to think that there may be a hardware limitation on the PS due to the hardware design and specific choice of components.

Can anybody shed some light on this ?

References

• [OpenWRT] Serial Console
• [OpenWRT] USB Guest configuration
• Linux Gadget Serial Driver v2.0

[Irukandji]

I think the micro-USB is for power only.

But here is the documentation here.

https://docs.hak5.org/hc/en-us/categories/360000982574-Packet-Squirrel

[Bob123]

I agree with Jtyle6 and have always assumed this was just power.  However if you do get this to work please share as that would open up a whole bunch of options.  Or Hak5 is there's a firmware update that would unlock that feature...again that would be awesome! 

[Irukandji]

9 hours ago, Bob123 said:

I agree with Jtyle6 and have always assumed this was just power.  However if you do get this to work please share as that would open up a whole bunch of options.  Or Hak5 is there's a firmware update that would unlock that feature...again that would be awesome! 

Yeah, I did lsusb without the Squirrel and with the Squirrel. Nothing really changed.

 

My internet is down for a few days because of a storm. So my pi's are down. I know about there serial.

I don't know what the devs know @Darren Kitchen