Once upon a time the names of the serial ports were simple. Except for some multiport serial cards they were named /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, etc. Then around the year 2000 came the USB bus with names like /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyACM1 (for the ACM modem on the USB bus). A little later with kernel 2.4 came the "device file system" (devfs) with a whole new set of names for everything. ttyS1 is now tts/1, ttyUSB1 is now /usb/tts/1, and ttyACM1 is now /usb/acm/1. Note that the the number 1 above is just an example. It could be replaced by 0, 2, 3, etc. The use of the device file system is optional and many are still using the legacy system. Others use devfs but have the old legacy names linked (via symlinks) to the new names. So they use the new system with the old names but may also use some of the new names for some devices. It's even possible ?? to use the new names for the old (non-devfs) system.
Starting with kernel 2.4, a new system of device naming was created. It makes it easy to deal with a huge number of devices. But there's an option to continue using the old names. However, a new device may not have an old-style name so then one must use the new devfs. For a detailed description of it see: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/devfs.html Also see the kernel documentation tree: filesystems/devfs.
Some more examples of name changes are: ttyS2 becomes tts/2 (Serial port), tty3 becomes vc/3 (Virtual Console), ptyp1 becomes pty/m1 (PTY master), ttyp2 becomes pty/s2 (PTY slave). "tts" looks like a directory which contains devices "files": 0, 1, 2, etc. All of these new names should still be in the /dev directory although optionally one may put them elsewhere.
Device names in the /dev directory are created automatically by the corresponding driver. Thus, if serial support comes from a module and that module isn't loaded yet, there will not be any serial devices in the /dev directory. This can be confusing: you physically have serial ports but don't see them in the /dev directory. However, if a device name is told to a communication program and the serial module isn't loaded, the kernel is supposed to try to find a driver for it and create a name for it in the /dev directory.
This is works OK if it finds a driver. But suppose there is no driver found for it. For example, if you try to use "setserial" to configure a port that the driver failed to detect, it claims there is no such port. How does one create a devfs port in this case?
Before the device file system, devices in Linux had major and minor numbers. The serial port ttySx (x=0,1,2, etc.) was major number 4. You could see this (and the minor numbers too) by typing: "ls -l ttyS*" in the /dev directory. To find the old device names for various devices, see the "devices" file in the kernel documentation.
There formerly was a "cua" name for each serial port and it behaved just a little differently. For example, ttyS2 would correspond to cua2. It was mainly used for modems. The cua major number was 5 and minor numbers started at 64. You may still have the cua devices in your /dev directory but they are now deprecated. For details see Modem-HOWTO, section: cua Device Obsolete.
For creating the old devices in the device directory see:
Creating Devices In the /dev directory
Dos/Windows use the COM name while the messages from the serial driver use ttyS00, ttyS01, etc. Older serial drivers (2001 ?) used just tty00, tty01, etc.
The tables below shows some examples of serial device names. The IO addresses are the default addresses for the old ISA bus (not for the newer PCI and USB buses). The major/minor numbers aren't needed for the devfs, but they often exist anyway just in case the devfs method of locating drivers can't be used.
old old ISA IO
dos devfs old name major minor address
COM1 /dev/tts/0 /dev/ttyS0 4, 64; 3F8
COM2 /dev/tts/1 /dev/ttyS1 4, 65; 2F8
COM3 /dev/tts/2 /dev/ttyS2 4, 66; 3E8
COM4 /dev/tts/3 /dev/ttyS3 4, 67; 2E8
DEVICES-ON-THE-USB-BUS (acm is a certain type of modem)
devfs legacy name devfs legacy name
/dev/usb/tts/0 /dev/ttyUSB0 | /dev/usb/acm/0 /dev/ttyACM0
/dev/usb/tts/1 /dev/ttyUSB1 | /dev/usb/acm/1 /dev/ttyACM1
/dev/usb/tts/2 /dev/ttyUSB2 | /dev/usb/acm/2 /dev/ttyACM2
/dev/usb/tts/3 /dev/ttyUSB3 | /dev/usb/acm/3 /dev/ttyACM3
For more info see the usb subdirectory in the kernel documentation directory for files: usb-serial, acm, etc.
On some installations, two extra devices will be created,
/dev/modem for your modem and /dev/mouse for a
mouse. Both of these are symbolic links to the appropriate serial
device in /dev which you specified during the installation
Except if you have a bus mouse, then /dev/mouse will point to
the bus mouse device).
Historical note: Formerly (in the 1990s) the use of
/dev/modem was discouraged since lock files might not realize
that it was really say /dev/ttyS2. The newer lock file
system doesn't fall into this trap so it's now OK to use such links.
Inspecting the connectors may give some clues but is often not definitive. The serial connectors on the back side of a PC are usually DB connectors with male pins. 9-pin is the most common but some are 25-pin (especially older PCs like 486s). There may be one 9-pin (perhaps ttyS0 ??) and one 25-pin (perhaps ttyS1 ??). For two 9-pin ones the top one might be ttyS0.
If you only have one serial port connector on the back of your PC, this may be easy. If you also have an internal modem, a program like wvdial may be able to tell you what port it's on (unless it's a PnP that hasn't been enabled yet). A report from setserial (at boot-time or run by you from the command line) should help you identify the non-modem port.
If you have two serial connectors it may be more difficult. First check manuals (if any) for your computer. Look at the connectors for meaningful labels. You might even want to take off the PC's cover and see if there are any meaningful labels on the card where the internal ribbon cables plug in. Labels (if any) are likely to say something like "serial 1", "serial 2" or A, B. Which com port it actually is will depend on jumper or PnP settings (sometimes shown in a CMOS setup menu). But 1 or A are more likely to be ttyS0 with 2 or B ttyS1.
Labels are not apt to be definitive so here's another method. If the serial ports have been configured correctly per setserial, then you may send some bytes out a port and try to detect which connector (if any) it's coming out of. One way to send such a signal is to copy a long text file to the port using a command like: cp my_file_name /dev/ttyS1. A voltmeter connected to the DTR pin (see Serial-HOWTO for Pinout) will display a positive voltage as soon as you give the copy command.
The transmit pin should go from several volts negative to a voltage
fluctuating around zero after you start sending the bytes. If it doesn't
(but the DTR went positive) then you've got the right port but it's
blocked from sending. This may be due to a wrong IRQ, -clocal being
set, etc. The command "stty -F /dev/ttyS1 -a" should show
clocal (and not -clocal). If not, change it to clocal.
Another test is to jumper the transmit and receive pins (pins 2 and 3 of either the 25-pin or 9-pin connector) of a test serial port. Then send something to each port (from the PCs keyboard) and see if it gets sent back. If it does it's likely the port with the jumper on it. Then remove the jumper and verify that nothing gets sent back. Note that if "echo" is set (per stty) then a jumper creates an infinite loop. Bytes that pass thru the jumper go into the port and come right back out of the other pin back to the jumper. Then they go back in and out again and again. Whatever you send to the port repeats itself forever (until you interrupt it by removing the jumper, etc.). This may be a good way to test it as the repeating test messages halt when the jumper is removed.
As a jumper you could use a mini (or micro) jumper cable (sold in some electronic parts stores) with mini alligator clips. A scrap of paper may be used to prevent the mini clips from accidentally touching the metal of the connector. Metal paper clips can sometimes be bent to use as jumpers. Whatever you use as a jumper take care not to bend or excessively scratch the pins. To receive something from a port, you can go to a virtual terminal (Alt-F2 for example) and type something like "cp /dev/ttyS2 /dev/tty". Then at another virtual terminal you may send something to ttyS2 (or whatever) by "echo test_message > /dev/ttyS2". Then go back to the receive virtual terminal and look for the test_message. See Serial Electrical Test Equipment for more info.
Another way to try to identify a serial port is to connect some physical serial device to it and see if it works. But a problem here is that it might not work because it's not configured right. A serial mouse might get detected at boot-time if connected.
If the software shows that you have more serial ports than you have connectors for (including an internal modem which counts as a serial port) then you may have a serial port that has no connector. Some motherboards come with a serial port with no cable or serial DB connector. Someone may build a PC from this and omit the connector. There may be a "serial" connector and label on the motherboard but no ribbon cable connects to its pins. To use this port you must get a ribbon cable and connector. I've seen different wiring arrangements for such ribbon cables so beware.
If you don't use devfs (which automatically creates such devices) and
don't have a device "file" that you need, you will have to create it.
Use the mknod command or with the MAKEDEV shell script.
Example, suppose you needed to create ttyS0:
linux# mknod -m 666 /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64
ttyS0 you would just type:
linux# MAKEDEV ttyS0
If the above command doesn't work (and your are the root user), look for the MAKEDEV script in the the /dev directory and run it.
This handles the devices creation and should set the correct permissions. For making multiport devices see Making multiport devices in the /dev directory.