I have a Globalsat BU 353N5 GPS USB receiver with Prolific Technology, Inc. ATEN Serial Bridge not recognised how do I get it working

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson Systems Jetson Thor
1

The device does not show up on any /dev/ interface it is plugged in and receiving power but lsub shows nothing. I believe it might use the pl2303 Kernal Module which I thought was standard on Ubuntu 24.04 but “sudo modprobe pl2303” returns modprobe: FATAL: Module pl2303 not found in directory /lib/modules/6.8.12-tegra.

Anyone know how I get this GPS receiver running on my Jetson Thor Dev kit.

BTW is anyone else having problems with the USB-C ports? That’s unrelated to the above but I have noticed sometimes things plugged into USB-C work and sometimes they don’t.

Thanks

3

Hi,
Please check if any kernel configs need to be enabled for the device. You can then follow the section to customize kernel image:
Kernel Customization — NVIDIA Jetson Linux Developer Guide

4 
cd Linux_for_Tegra/source/kernel/kernel-noble
ls drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.*

# On Thor
zcat /proc/config.gz >defconfig

grep -i pl2303 defconfig
# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303 is not set

mv defconfig arch/arm64/configs/

make menuconfig
-> Device Drivers                                                                                                                                  │  
   -> USB support (USB_SUPPORT [=y])                                                                                                                │  
      -> USB Serial Converter support (USB_SERIAL [=m])                                                                                              │  
         -> USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver (USB_SERIAL_PL2303 [=n])                                                                      │  

grep -i pl2303 .config 
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303=m
5

Thanks Whitessott - I have got that far. Do I now have to make a new kernel or simply make a module, apologies only had the Thor a few days and I am still getting to grips with it.

6

Hi,
We would suggest make a new kernel and modules. Please refer to the real practice on Orin Jetpack 6:
No data from Joystick Logitech-f710 - #10 by DaneLLL

It is similar on Thor Jetpack 7. Only difference is to refer to developer guide of Jetpack 7.1 r38.4.

7

This works on Thor to do an automated Jetpack 7.1 kernel build.

I’ve not tested on x86_64 yet but only real difference are the correct aarch64 gcc build tools and the scripts test the computer running on with uname -m. My Thor has gcc=13.3.0, took a little time to determine best way to get gcc=13.2.0 binaries without downgrading gcc on Thor.

If you want to use this method to build your kernel module.

Make an empty directory.
Copy 2 attached files into that directory.

Run ./jetpack-download-extract.sh first to download jetpack 7.1 and all needed source and binaries.

Next run ./nvbuild-kernel-dtb-and-Modules.sh

When it asks whether to run menuconfig, for now I’d say yes. and as noted above get to "USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver (USB_SERIAL_PL2303 " and hit spacebar or m to make it to be a module. exit/exit/exit and let it save .config

Then script will continue and the first time nvbuild-kernel-dtb-and-Modules.sh executes I’d pick A to build kernel, modules, dtbs.

In about 10 minutes you’ll have your pl2303.ko module

Then grab and test your module.

sudo modprobe usbserial
sudo insmod Linux_for_Tegra/source/kernel_out/kernel/kernel-noble/drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.ko
sudo dmesg --ctime | tail -20

lsmod | grep -E 'pl2303|usbserial'
pl2303                 16384  0
usbserial              32768  1 pl2303

Then if it’s happy, install it.

sudo install -D -m 0644 \
  Linux_for_Tegra/source/kernel_out/kernel/kernel-noble/drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.ko \
  /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.ko

sudo depmod -a

sudo modprobe usbserial
sudo modprobe pl2303

# To make load at boot run

printf '%s\n' usbserial pl2303 | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/pl2303.conf

jetpack-download-extract.sh.txt (4.4 KB)
nvbuild-kernel-dtb-and-Modules.sh.txt (3.3 KB)

8

Thanks for the help I am having trouble running ./nvbuild-kernel-dtb-and-Modules.sh it stops with the error “line 8: ./jetpack-env.sh: No such file or directory” I have googled jetpack-env.sh and I can’t find anything that seems relevant - sorry yo be a total noob on this one any pointers please?

9

modify this to your paths

cat jetpack-env.sh 
# Generated by jetpack-download-extract.sh — Mon May 11 05:26:06 PM PDT 2026
export TOOLROOT="/home/scott/.git/setup-jetpack-build/test/gcc-13.2.0"
export CC="/home/scott/.git/setup-jetpack-build/test/gcc-13.2.0/usr/bin/gcc-13"
export LD="/home/scott/.git/setup-jetpack-build/test/gcc-13.2.0/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-ld"
10

Thanks Scott - Have created the file but a bit of digging and I find it should have been created when I ran ./jetpack-download-extract.sh

{

echo "# Generated by jetpack-download-extract.sh --- $(date)"

\[\[ -n "$TOOLROOT" \]\]      && echo "export TOOLROOT=\\"$TOOLROOT\\""

\[\[ -n "$CROSS_COMPILE" \]\] && echo "export CROSS_COMPILE=\\"$CROSS_COMPILE\\""

echo "export CC=\\"$CC\\""

echo "export LD=\\"$LD\\""

} > jetpack-env.sh

echo “Toolchain env saved to jetpack-env.sh”

but ./jetpack-download-extract.sh is failing with "Get:2 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-13-2-local Release

Err:2 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-13-2-local Release

File not found - /var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-13-2-local/Release (2: No such file or directory)"

So the creation of the file is not happening. :( How do I install “/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-13-2-local/Release”?

11

I feel bad that scripts did not work for you. I just built the attached.

tar xf pl2303.tar.gz
sudo cp -p pl2303.ko /lib/modules/6.8.12-tegra/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe pl2303

pl2303.tar.gz (29.7 KB)

# To make load at boot run

printf '%s\n' usbserial pl2303 | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/pl2303.conf
12

Thats incredibly kind of you Scott and Much appreciated. However the script did run - I managed to hack around the error with your help and I did produce and load a pl2303 module… but the device is still not working. Not sure why at the moment - I will try your module in case mine is broken. I am also going to attach the device to a different machine and see if i can get a response out of it. Again I really appreciate your help thank you!

13

Once the driver module was loaded I then had to determine the correct baud rate stop bits etc the following command tests the baud etc and shows the output

sudo stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 4800 raw && sudo cat /dev/ttyUSB0

14

That’s fantastic. I will get a similar device soon and have made note of the stty command.