1

I have an RaspberryPI 3+ with Debian installed on it. I'am trying to connect a serial device (Raspbee) via the GPIO pins like this. Under Raspbian this worked by enabling UART in raspi-config after which I could talk to the device via /dev/ttyAMA0.

How can I do this on Debian? There is of course no raspi-config on stock Debian and I doesn't get any communication out of /dev/ttyAMA0.

5
  • What does DebIan give you that's not in Raspbian or Raspbian Lite? Here's a clue: nothing except serial doesn't work.
    – Dougie
    Nov 24, 2019 at 16:40
  • That's not really the point here but the most important benefit of debian over raspbian is, that it comes without any non-free software. It also is way less bloated with software I don't need.
    – xeetsh
    Nov 24, 2019 at 16:54
  • 1
    Switch to Raspbian Lite then add in things you need. That's better supported than DebIan.
    – Dougie
    Nov 24, 2019 at 22:30
  • @Dougie Some packages are missing, broken, or outdated in Raspbian, e.g. unrar-nonfree or perf, so Debian is not entirely useless as you suggest. Aug 17, 2021 at 12:55
  • @DmitryGrigoryev wait until RaspiOS Bullseye comes out and try again.
    – Dougie
    Aug 18, 2021 at 15:57

2 Answers 2

1

raspi-config is just a shell script with minimal dependencies. Grab a copy from here:

https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/blob/master/raspi-config

For most things including this it should work fine as Raspbian is in fact nearly identical to Debian. There may be a few thing that require the userland tools but this is not one of them.

All it appears to to do is add enable_uart=1 to /boot/config.txt, and, if you want the serial line console disabled (you probably do if you want to do anything other than login or observe system messages over UART), it removes console=serial0 or console=ttyAMA0 /boot/cmdline.txt. The best bet is to change that to console=tty1, which will put system messages on a virtual console (the one you see on the screen if you boot without a GUI).

The official config.txt documentation regarding the UART is here: https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/master/configuration/uart.md

0

First, I suggest you use /dev/serial0 (which is /dev/ttyS0 on the Pi3) /dev/ttyAMA0 is connected to Bluetooth.

I haven't used Debian on a Pi, but assume it is using Device Tree and has the standard devices and uses udev to map serial ports.

NOTE to use a Pi you MUST use "non-free software" just to boot.

The following link explains serial, and manual processes to enable it. How do I make serial work on the Raspberry Pi3 or later

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.