You don't need a terminal program for accessing a cisco usb management port on MACOSX ( unix screen )

In this short post, I will show you a method for access a cisco usb management port like what's found on the cisco 2960S and other cisco devices.


First you need to search in your MACOSX /dev directory for your "usb" port name AFTER YOU CONNECTED YOUR USB CABLE. 



Here's what we found on my macbook air 10.8.5 after I connected to my cisco usb-management port.

( device tty.usbmodem1411 )

Next we use the integral macosx  screen program  and specify the full  device path. ( see the cmd above & the highlighted blue part  )

After execution, you will now have access to your cisco devices console. Alternative,  you could  have a free terminal program such as Zterm.

NOTE: If you suspect the port is not operative use the macosx  "system_profiler SPUSBDataType"  it will show the USB port #.

( output shorten )

Key points to take away

• search and list the usb device name after connecting the usb cable

• you don't need a usb-2-serial dongle any more

• screen by default and when used with a tty devices, defaults to 9600 8 n 1

• you can't use the RJ45 console at the same time

 Ken Felix
 Freelance Network & Security Engineer
 kfelix -a--t- socpuppets ---d--o--t--- com

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