In the case that an ssh connection fails, or you don’t know the board’s IP address yet, you can also get command-line access to the PYNQ via UART connection over USB. The board must be powered via a USB cable connected the host computer for this to work.
Windows
Find the serial port:
- Open Device Manager
- In the Ports section, find the USB Serial Port device, and make note of the COM port number. For example, it may be COM6.
Connect using putty
- Run putty
- Switch to Serial
- In the Serial Line box, enter the appropriate COM port number, eg. COM6
- In the Speed box, enter 115200.
- Click Open
- You may need to hit Enter on your keyboard a few times for the PYNQ command prompt to appear.
Linux or Mac
Find the serial port:
- Run
ls /dev/ttyUSB*(Linux) orls /dev/tty.*(Mac) - Plug in the Pynq board via USB
- Run the command again and see what is new. It will probably be named /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyUSB1 (different on Mac). There may be more than one new serial port connected, and you may need to try connecting to both. (Usually it is USB1)
Connect with screen:
- Run
sudo screen /dev/[port_name] 115200 - If it hangs, type ‘‘Ctrl-a, k’’ to kill the Screen session
- Try the other port
- You may need to hit Enter on your keyboard a few times for the PYNQ command prompt to appear.
While you may be tempted to use this UART connection for all of your work, we strongly advise against it. It is slow and sometimes unreliable. Use this to determine the IP address, and then connect via SSH.