Terminal Programs Configuration

Background

This page explains how to configure some popular terminal programs for correct display of newlines when using the serial interface of a RIOT powered device. When printing something using stdio (e.g., printf("Hello World!\n");, RIOT sends a line feed character (0xA) as \n (newline).

Some terminals need more, for example, a carriage return and a line feed character (0x0D, 0x0A). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline for background.

This page tries to collect the necessary settings for common terminal programs that will make them correctly display newlines.

GTKTerm

• Graphical method:
  • Open the configuration menu.
  • Click on CR LF auto.
• Manual method:
  • Edit the file ~/.gtktermrc.
  • Change value of crlfauto option to True.

Minicom

• Interactive method:
  • Press Ctrl+A u.
• Manual method:
  • Edit the configuration file (~/.minirc.dfl per default).
  • Add the following line: pu addcarreturn Yes

Miniterm

• Generic method:
  • Start with --eol CR parameter.
• Via RIOT build system:
  • RIOT_TERMINAL=miniterm make term

picocom

• Generic method:
  • Start with --imap lfcrlf parameter.
• Via RIOT build system:
  • RIOT_TERMINAL=picocom make term

PuTTY

• Graphical method:
  • Go to configuration tree and choose Terminal branch.
  • Enable option Implicit CR in every LF.