It's a simple terminal program, easy to configure and use. Can be downloaded and installed from your Linux package distribution (Synaptic, apt-get, yum) or through this link.
Minicom is a terminal emulation that can access a remote serial console enabling the configuration of Bootloader or the flash file system of the board.
Run Minicom calling it from Terminal:
$ minicom
Reach the cofiguration by typing CTRL-A Z
Press key Z after releasing CTRL and A.
Configure Minicom to work with i.MX, follow the procedure below.
At the screen configuration, type O, choosing Configure Minicom
In menu, choose Serial Port Setup
Below, the configuration option:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A - Serial Device : /dev/ttyS0 |
| B - Lockfile Location : /var/lock |
| C - Callin Program : |
| D - Callout Program : |
| E - Bps/Par/Bits : 115200 8N1 |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : No |
| G - Software Flow Control : No |
| |
| Change which setting? |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Type the letter of option to enable the modification.
Remember to choose the right Serial Device.
Another useful program to use with serial ports is screen.
It is a screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation usually available in Linux distributions.
To open serial device /dev/ttyS0, for example, using 115200 baudrate, simply use:
$ screen /dev/ttyS0 115200
To kill the screen manager, use Ctrl + a, k.
For a list of useful parameters and commands, try:
$ man screen