Start Serial Console on Galileo using Linux, w/ USB->UART FTDI cable

These instructions will allow you to start a serial console on your Intel Galileo board using Linux.  The instructions assume an ubuntu/debian release and use apt-get for software installation, so if you're using another distribution, substitute apt-get with the relevant package management command for your system.

1. Plug in the power and USB->UART FTDI cable
2. Immediately after plugging in the cable, run dmesg:

   $ dmesg
   ...
   [184943.625437] usb 3-2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

   The device listed at the end is the assigned serial device for your FTDI.
3. Install cu:

   $ sudo apt-get install cu

4. Set the user and group of the serial device to uucp:

   $ sudo chown uucp: /dev/ttyUSB0

5. Connect:

   $ sudo cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 115200
   Connected.
   
   Poky 9.0 (Yocto Project 1.4 Reference Distro) 1.4.1 clanton /dev/ttyS1
   
   clanton login:
   

6. Login as user root, with no password:

   clanton login: root
   root@clanton:~#

Happy Hacking!