openOCD with pl2303 based serial cable?

I have a Pogoplug (the marvell sheevaplug without the debug/SDIO board). I have built a USB to serial cable using a Nokia CA-42 cable which connects to the serial tx, rx and gnd. I can connect to the serial console using PuTTY from Linux Mint 6 XFCE so I know that the cable is wired up correctly.

I have been unable to get openOCD working. I see that openOCD typically uses the FTDI 2232 chip but my cable uses a Prolific PL2303 chip with a pid/vid of 0x67b/0x2303. I am fairly new to Linux and have tried playing with modprobe and udev rules, I feel like I’m getting close but no luck so far.

My question: is it possible to to get openOCD working with the PL2303 chip?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ian

Hi

Short answer is no.

OpenOCD uses a JTAG connection to debug a target. This is a very different type of serial interface from “standard” serial connections with tx, rx and gnd.

The FT2232 chip is often used for USB to serial communications, but OpenOCD uses a different mode called MPSSE. The PL2303 chip cannot do this.

Regards

Magnus

Hi Magnus,

Thanks for the fast and definitive response!

If I buy another usb to serial cable that has the FT2232 chip, will I be able to get openOCD to work with just rx, tx and ground?

Thanks,

Ian

Hi

No, the JTAG interface uses 4 signals called TDI, TDO, TMS and TCK and also signals to control the target reset lines. The normal rx and tx are used here but in a different mode and as you can see more signal pins are needed.

If you are deeply into DIY electronics it is possible to make a openocd compatible jtag interface from a ft2232 chip.

It is reasonably simple to build an interface from a FT2232 module

http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~hhoegl/proj/ … bjtag.html

Or just buy a ft2232 based jtag interface like JTAG USB OCD Tiny or Amontec Jtagkey, not so fun but quick and reasonably cheap.

Some of the prebuilt interfaces makes it possible to use a serial connection to tx/rx and a jtag connection for OpenOCD at the same time.

Have fun and best luck

Magnus

Magnus,

Again, thank you for the fast and helpful response!

I’ll check out an ft2232 based jtag interface.

Ian