An alternative to
socat is
nc (or netcat) which is included in the default installation of Mac OS X.
1. Check
Enable console support for your VirtualBox VM in the GNS3 Preferences.

2. Drag and drop the
VirtualBox guest object into your topology.
3. Start the VM.
4. In the VirtualBox application, select the
Ports tab in the settings for your VirtualBox VM.
5. Identify the
Port/File Path value.

6. In the
Terminal application, run the following command to establish a virtual console port connection to the VM:
Code:
nc -U /tmp/pipe_ASAVBOX