http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=3125
Installing the RealPort driver in Ubuntu Linux
The latest source rpm driver candidate supporting the latest kernels is available for download from (note 2.6.26 kernels are not supported):

dgrp source rpm ftp downlod

Make certain the rpm, alien, kernel-headers and the libncurses5-devel packages are installed on the system.

To install:

Make a symbolic link the bash shell in place of dash (there are problems using dash):

sudo rm /bin/sh
sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

sudo script
sudo rpmbuild --rebuild (driver-ver).src.rpm
sudo alien -d --scripts /usr/src/rpm/RPMS/(arch)/dgrp-(ver).(arch).rpm
sudo dpkg -i dgrp_(ver+1)_(arch).deb
exit
sudo dgrp_gui

Where (arch) represents the system architecture and (ver) represents the driver version. The (ver+1) represents alien incrementing the version number by 1. For example, dgrp-1.9-22.i386.rpm will be labeled dgrp_1.9-23.i386.deb.

If errors are seen, please send the file called typescript residing in the directory where the script command was issued to: Support Wizards.

# install dpkg, dpkg-dev debhelper
sudo opkg install dpkg

wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debhelper/debhelper_9.20140228_all.deb

##### DEAD END #####
can't get debhelper or rpm to correctly install on bbone (dpkg doesn't figure out deps)

may be able to do all of this with OEBB or in a debian arm vm