Overview

As an alternative to configuring dedicated UART peripherals inside your hardware, you may wish to use a USB to serial converter instead.

This page outlines the steps to add support for a USB to serial converter to your buildroot image.

Adding to your image

1. Determine which USB to serial device is in use for your hardware. The manufacturer's page may be useful for this. For the example device referenced below at TI TUSB3410 the part is a TI 3410.

2. Run make menuconfig from the buildroot directory. Search for any packages relative to your target hardware using the / key and entering some relevant text. In the case of the TI-3410/5052 there is a "Serial Firmware" package to add under the buildroot "Hardware Handling" sub-menu (refer the screenshot section).

3. Run make linux-menuconfig from the buildroot directory. Search for "USB Serial Converter Support" using the / key and select it from the associated buildroot menu (probably under Device Drivers and USB Support).

References

Configure USB Serial Driver for TI 3410/5052

USB Serial Converter Support

Screenshots

Screenshot to enable USB TI 3410/5052 Serial Firmware under Target Packages -> Hardware Handling -> Firmware -> USB to Serial Firmware in buildroot 2022.02.X configuration

Screenshot to enable USB Serial Converter Support under Device Drivers -> USB Support in linux/arm64 5.10.92 Kernel Configuration