This doesn’t come up for me very often, but when it does, it is always a pain. Well, I finally had enough … again. I needed a serial console connection much like those needed for network equipment (routers, switches, etc). Last time, I was determined not to use HyperTerm, one of the worst applications (Why is this still in the documentation for these devices?). I decided to approach it from a linux client, instead of Windows. I happily used minicom in linux, until today when I needed to upload firmware to a SAN controller using XMODEM 1K. It would not work no matter what I tried including adding -k to the sw command.

So, back to Windows I went. I tried putty, because it is light and no installation is required. However, putty does support XMODEM at all. Nonetheless, putty provides great quick console access.

Next, I tried Tera Term VT, and this worked well. Got connected right up to the console, and it seems to support XMODEM 1k as well. I have been able to transfer the firmware to the controller, however, the firmware is not installing despite saying that the download was successful. It looked so promising too.