Re: USB-serial adapter suggestions needed

From: bob prohaska <fbsd_at_www.zefox.net>
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2023 16:42:57 UTC 
On Thu, Dec 28, 2023 at 07:40:30PM -0800, Mark Millard wrote:
> 
> Use of the mini-uart is probably not a good idea for the serial console: dtoverlay=disable-bt should also be listed, like for the other RPi3B* .

That makes perfect sense, especially in concert with use of powerd
on www.zefox.org, the serial console being monitored. I switched
the console back to the PL011, but left powerd active. About six
hours later the ssh session from workstation to terminal server
dropped again. After restoring the ssh session from workstation
to pelorus (the terminal server) and starting tip through the
usb-serial adapter www.zefox.org's console login prompt came up.

It still contained a flurry of what looked like garbage characters
(a few printable) at the start but they were replaced by a clean 
login prompt that worked correctly. That was a surprise.

Next I turned off powerd on www.zefox.org, rebooted and confirmed
both a PL011 console and no powerd running. Brought up the ssh
link to pelorus (terminal server) and tip through the usb-serial
adapter to www.zefox.org's console. 

Next the connection to the terminal server dropped again, this time
prematurely, as I disturbed  the network. It was re-started next
morning in the usual way and tip was resumed to www.zefox.org's
console. It came up exactly as usual:

# tip ucom
Stale lock on cuaU0 PID=8335... overriding.
connected

FreeBSD/arm64 (www.zefox.org) (ttyu0)

login: �}�ɽѽ                         
�����������͕ŁɁm�ɕ��ѡu5)5)^Q���������������݁�͡�m����u違�ɽ��^Y�͡}���}�ɽѽ���}��ɽ����������͕Ł́m�ɕ��ѡu5)5)^Q������������݁��݁�͡�m����u遙�х��Q�����с����ɕ���ѡ��ѥ��ѥ�����Ɂ��ݹ�5)�Password:
Login incorrect
login: Login timed out after 300 seconds
Dec 30 07:55:32 www login[1072]: 1 LOGIN FAILURE ON ttyu0

FreeBSD/arm64 (www.zefox.org) (ttyu0)
 
Login: 

It really looks as if the garbage somehow got into the data stream
_from_ the terminal server _to_ the console. 


> 
> In fact, other than the force_mac_address, the general content should be like the one with arm_64bit=1 as far as I can tell. Do you have specific reasons for needing any of the differences?
>
 
Certainly not that difference, arm_64bit=1 has been restored.
No obvious effect so far. It appears that www.zefox.org was
set up in June of 2020, the discrepancies are likely due to 
age and inept administration 

Might the trouble be the terminal server Pi3? It's running
FreeBSD pelorus 14.0-RELEASE-p4 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p4 #0 releng/14.0-n265400-4edf3b80733e: Wed Dec 27 20:21:26 PST 2023     bob@pelorus:/usr/obj/usr/src/arm64.aarch64/sys/GENERIC arm64

The usb serial bridge reports as
ugen1.6: <FTDI FT232R USB UART> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (90mA)

[mention of limited Net access noted]

Thanks _very_ much for your help and to anyone following this thread.

bob prohaska