[ghshephard]

tmux doesn't help you in this scenario, because the tmux process is lost during a system reboot. I concur with the parent - Terminal.App's ability to restore the previous sessions output after a system crash (which on my macbook Air ranges from daily to weekly - FTDI USB Drivers and Display Port cable being to the two major reason) really make me appreciate that feature.

[nicholassmith]

"FTDI USB Drivers", if it's the VCP ones the very latest ones have been reasonably stable for me. I've not had a system crash for quite a while now, whereas I was having them weekly with an older version.

[ghshephard]

Nope - I'm on the latest 2.2.18 drivers still flakey as can be - This has been an ongoing issue for me for about two years - it's a pain when you are working on a Cisco Router, and you unplug the cable and kernel panic. I guess on the (weirdly?) pro side, it's at least fairly consistent - about 20% of the time, the Macbook (two generations now for me, 2010, and 2013) kernel panics.

This is where Terminal.app (or possibly OS X 10.9 + Terminal.app) ability to show you your terminal history on recovery from Kernel Panic is really appreciated.

If only there was a reliable USB-Serial cable/controller/interface for the Mac. Unfortunately, RS-232 is so rare (except for consoling into Cisco Routers?) that there is no incentive for any vendor to actually write a half stable driver.

[jauer]

Assuming a PL-2032, Have you tried the alternate open-source drivers? http://nozap.me/driver/osxpl2303/index.html

That fixed the KP for me and got break to work which didn't out of the box.

Before the updated drivers I worked around the KP by closing cu/screen before unplugging the cable.

[bydo]

I don't know what sort of serial adapter you're using, but I've used a number of the PL2303-based ones over the years (currently a Trendnet TU-S9), and have never had them cause any sort of instability. Weird.

[ghshephard]

I've never found any one particular USB-Serial Adapter to be any more reliable. Currently using the Tripp Lite Keyspan, Model USA-49WG, SKU CU8037. Appears on the USB chain as: Product ID: 0x0131, Vendor ID: 0x06CD. Still kernel panics when I pull out the USB Cable.

I carry a Dell Laptop when going to customer sites+Putty for consoling into Cisco Routers because I've never found a Serial Cable/USB combination that doesn't cause the Macbook air to Kernel Panic.

I'll give the PL-2303 based device a chance - I see there is a nice comparison site here:

http://www.usconverters.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=60

I'll definitely try the Trendnet TU-S9. Here's hoping 4 years of weekly hell on my mac laptop comes to an end...

But, maybe I'll try upgrading to Mavericks - this seems to suggest that some progress has been made in the FTDI driver department: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2315/_in...

[ghshephard]

I've never found any one particular USB-Serial Adapter to be any more reliable with the FTDI drivers on the Mac. Currently using the Tripp Lite Keyspan, Model USA-49WG, SKU CU8037. Appears on the USB chain as: Product ID: 0x0131, Vendor ID: 0x06CD.

I carry a Dell Laptop when going to customer sites+Putty for consoling into Cisco Routers because I've never found a Serial Cable/USB combination that doesn't cause the Macbook air to Kernel Panic.

I'll give the PL-2303 based device a chance - I see there is a nice comparison site here:

http://www.usconverters.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=60

I'll definitely try the Trendnet TU-S9. Here's hoping 4 years of weekly hell on my mac laptop comes to an end...

[nnnnni]

I'm thrilled to hear that I'm not the only one! My MBA always crashes after I remove a Cisco console cable...