How to transfer a file over serial console

1. Purpose[edit source]

The article provides information that is useful when starting with ckermit.

2. Introduction[edit source]

C-Kermit is a combined network and serial communication software package offering a consistent, transport-independent, cross-platform approach to: connection establishment, terminal sessions, file transfer, file management, character-set translation, numeric and alphanumeric paging, automation of file transfer and management, dialogs, and communication tasks through its built-in scripting language.

In this article, we focus only on file-transfer between a host PC and an STMicroelectronics board via a serial console.

3. Installation on your target[edit source]

Kermit is installed on the STMicroelectronics images via the ckermit package

4. Installation on your PC[edit source]

The ckermit package MUST be installed on your PC to perform file tranfers via a serial console

On ubuntu

 sudo apt-get install ckermit

5. Getting started[edit source]

generate a configuration file for kermit

Content of kermit_ttyACM0.cfg

set line /dev/ttyACM0
set speed 115200
set carrier-watch off
set flow-control none
set prefixing all
set parity none
set stop-bits 1
set modem none

Information

ttyACM0 corresponds to the serial port on Linux connected to the board. It can vary depending on the type of serial connection (ttyS0, ttyUSB0,...

Download a file from a board to your PC:

Get the file /etc/hosts from the board:

 kermit kermit_ttyACM0.cfg -g /etc/hosts

Upload a file from your PC to a board:

Put the local file myfile.txt on the board at specific location: /home/root/

 kermit kermit_ttyACM0.cfg -s myfile.txt

Information

To close the kermit session properly, don't forget to send the following command:

 kermit kermit_ttyACM0.cfg -f

6. Tips[edit source]

Serial port already in use

If you encounter this kind of message (or if the command line is stuck, and displays random characters)

 kermit kermit_ttyACM0.cfg -s /etc/hosts
Locked by process 24320
can't open device

Please kill/close the serial console application (generaly Minicom on Linux)