umodem0, Cisco USB serial console, and quirks

[Mike Andrews]

On Fri, 2 Nov 2018, CeDeROM wrote:

> Try to add VID/PID of your device into a usbmodem driver. Use
> configurations to see which one works with your device. Rebuild the
> module/kernel, reboot, try it out untill success.
>
> After your device is recognised by usbmodem and creates several cuaU*
> devices.. still Your device may require uploading a specific firmware
> in order for gsm modem to work. You can find those in Windows driver
> package.
>
> Use MINICOM for cuaU communications that would save you a debug time.
>
> That works for me - added 3 devices like that with no problem. In fact
> they work better on FreeBSD than Windows ;-)
>
>
> Alternartively, replace your modem with something that is known to
> work - for instance QUECTEL EC25 LTE module works far better than my
> previous stock 3G module here..

I think we're losing the plot here a bit.

While this is generally useful advice, this thread was originally about 
the USB serial console port of Cisco ASA firewalls.  It should just be a 
plain ol' USB-to-serial setup.  No actual modems of any kind involved, 
especially not cellular ones.

I suspect we shouldn't even be loading umodem at all -- just ucom.  But 
for some reason, umodem gets loaded when I plug the thing in.  With just 
an FTDI serial-to-usb adapter in there, umodem doesn't just, just ucom.

These firewalls (and I suspect all of Cisco's newer routers and switches) 
have both normal serial and mini-USB-to-serial ports, and you can connect 
a simple USB-to-serial converter (PL2303, FTDI, etc) into the normal port 
and of course that works fine on FreeBSD.  But it would be nice to skip 
needing the dongle...