Minicom serial comms with file transfer

The Minicom serial communication program allows connecting to devices over the serial port and transferring files using XMODEM, YMODEM, or ZMODEM protocols–PuTTY can’t currently do file transfer over serial links.

Install Minicom like:

  • macOS: brew install minicom lrzsz (lrzsz is for file transfer)
  • Linux: apt install minicom lrzsz (or similar for relevant package manager)
  • Windows: use WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

On macOS in particular for file transfers, first be sure that Minicom can find the sz, rz commands by looking under Esc-O for “File transfer protocols”. It may be necessary to point to lsz and lrz installed by Homebrew.

As noted in the documentation for Minicom, it is possible to save profiles. To just use a device directory, set command line options like:

minicom -D /dev/tty.usbserial-0001 -b 115200

List the USB-serial adapter ports:

  • Linux: ls /dev/ttyUSB*
  • macOS: ls /dev/tty.usbserial*

To send a file from Minicom once the device is ready, press Esc-Z and then S for send, select the appropriate protocol.