Do I really need a USB-to-FTDI cable to see the U-boot prompt? Will it not work on micro-HDMI?

[uni...@gmail.com]

Hi, I've seen some docs on how to build a custom kernel and so far it appears to have cross-compiled correctly.

http://elinux.org/Building_BBB_Kernel

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial

Now, in order to see the U-boot prompt, it says I should connect the serial cable to my PC. I currently don't have a FTDI cable and buying one is going to be a slow, bureaucratic process (company policies, employment status as a contractor, blah blah blah). I was wondering if it is really needed - I have a micro-HDMI and a USB keyboard, I can access the Linux console with them. Can they be used to access the U-boot prompt and command line?

(Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question but I'd never heard of U-boot before. I've worked with other similar devices but they had an Intel processor and chipset, was able to access EFI and GRUB via HDMI).

The BBB also had a mini-USB cable included. By plugging it to my PC with it I can see the BBB as a storage device and it shows up the first partition of eMMC (docs, drivers, etc). But it doesn't appear to expose a serial port and so I don't think I can use it to see the boot prompt...is that correct?

Thanks.

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 10:33 AM, <uni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, I've seen some docs on how to build a custom kernel and so far it
> appears to have cross-compiled correctly.
> http://elinux.org/Building_BBB_Kernel
> http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial
>
> Now, in order to see the U-boot prompt, it says I should connect the serial
> cable to my PC. I currently don't have a FTDI cable and buying one is going
> to be a slow, bureaucratic process (company policies, employment status as a
> contractor, blah blah blah). I was wondering if it is really needed - I have
> a micro-HDMI and a USB keyboard, I can access the Linux console with them.
> Can they be used to access the U-boot prompt and command line?

Serial only...

> (Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question but I'd never heard of U-boot
> before. I've worked with other similar devices but they had an Intel
> processor and chipset, was able to access EFI and GRUB via HDMI).
>
> The BBB also had a mini-USB cable included. By plugging it to my PC with it
> I can see the BBB as a storage device and it shows up the first partition of
> eMMC (docs, drivers, etc). But it doesn't appear to expose a serial port and
> so I don't think I can use it to see the boot prompt...is that correct?

Regards,

--
Robert Nelson
https://rcn-ee.com/

[William Hermans]

You do not have to buy a FTDI cable. It could be any decent cable, that does not necessarily cost as much as FTDI. For example my buddy and I ordered a couple of PL2303HX cables off ebay for like $5-6 usd shipped.

My point here is that you could just simply pay $2-$3 out of your pocket, and just be done with it. However, depending on who you deal with shipping can take a long time . . .

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[Stephane Charette]

On Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 12:36:07 PM UTC-8, William Hermans wrote:

You do not have to buy a FTDI cable. It could be any decent cable, that does not necessarily cost as much as FTDI. For example my buddy and I ordered a couple of PL2303HX cables off ebay for like $5-6 usd shipped.

The ones I found with shipping (to Canada) were in the $40-50 range, which was discouraging -- more expensive than buying a new BeagleBone!  Eventually found this one on Amazon for $3, including shipping, and it works great:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00F167PWE

Stéphane