VT100 emulator under linux.

[Romain Kang]

On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 03:05:16PM -0400, ghannon@cspi.com wrote:
> 
> I'm used to running tip to connect to a serial port and
> converse with a remote system.  I don't find in under YDL 2.1.
> Is there an equivalent program?   or an rpm someone could suggest?

There are two free packages that might address your needs, uucp and
minicom (easily obtained through rpmfind.net).  I've generally seen
these run in xterm or rxvt, which provide quasi VT100 compatibility
(usually good enough).

One of the programs in GNU (Taylor) uucp is "cu", named after a
utility to "call unix" machines.  The Bell Labs V7 cu was the basis
for "tip", so the GNU version is a bit closer to the look and feel
of tip, at least in the user interface.  Configuration is another
matter, since you basically have to learn how to set up Taylor
UUCP (with its cluster of config files) to get going.

By contrast, "minicom" is completely menu configured, and wants to
drop into character screen menus when you send it command escape
sequences.  This could be inconvenient if you're connected to your
access through another layer of dialup.  It's probably easier for
novices to get started with it, but if you need to connect with
several different serial ports, switching destinations is clumsy
compared with tip.

I haven't seen a Linux port of tip, but if your box's primary
function is to be a serial gateway, FreeBSD has a decent version
of tip.  Or some enterprising person could do the port -- the main
issue is reimplementing some of the function with a different
ioctl() interface.

Romain