How to install minicom in Fedora 20 to configure Cisco switches and routers through the console port

To configure a Cisco switch or routers through the console port using Fedora, you need to install a program called minicom. Minicom is a text-based menu-driven serial communication programfor Linux. To install minicom, open up your terminal and run the below command as root.

yum -y install minicom

The system that I'm using for this tutorial doesn't have a serial port so I use a USB to serial adapter. If your computer doesn't have a serial port, then you need a USB to serial adapter just like this one.

Verify if your USB to serial device is working properly.

dmesg | grep tty

As you can see the serial port is now mapped to /dev/ttyUSB0.

[    0.000000] console [tty0] enabled
[27980.291272] usb 3-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

you can also use the setserial command.

setserial -G /dev/ttyUSB0

The output is similar to the above command.

/dev/ttyUSB0 uart 16654 port 0x0000 irq 0 baud_base 460800 spd_normal

Configure the minicom using the below command:

minicom -s

Select "Serial port setup"

 +-----[configuration]------+                                        
 | Filenames and paths      |                                        
 | File transfer protocols  |                                        
 | Serial port setup        |                                        
 | Modem and dialing        |                                        
 | Screen and keyboard      |                                        
 | Save setup as dfl        |                                        
 | Save setup as..          |                                        
 | Exit                     |                                        
 | Exit from Minicom        |                                        
 +--------------------------+

then use the following configuration for cisco switch and router.

 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+   
 | A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |   
 |                                                                       |   
 | C -   Callin Program      :                                           |   
 | D -  Callout Program      :                                           |   
 | E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 9600 8N1                                  |   
 | F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |   
 | G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |   
 |                                                                       |   
 |    Change which setting?                                              |   
 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+   

select "Save setup as.." and give it a name that you can easily remember e.g. "cisco".

 +-----------------------------------------+
 |Give name to save this configuration?    |
 |> cisco                                  |
 +-----------------------------------------+

Your minicom is now set for Cisco switches and routers. Select "Exit" and start configuring your router. To exit minicom press CTRL+A then release and press Q or X.

If you want to re-configure your Cisco devices again using minicom, you can just type the below command without re-configuring your minicom.

minicom cisco