help testing uart and SPI on daughterboard

Hi All,

I just got my newly designed daughterboard back. It has a GPS chip
that connected to UART2 and inertial measurement unit (IMU) on SPI3
(slave). I have not decided what version of Linux to use yet. But I
want to test if my beagleboard can talk to the GPS and IMU. What is
the simplest method to test them? I am pretty new to beagleboard even
though I have used linux for many years. My beagleboard is C4 version
and I have tried ubuntu linux on it. It works fine. I have PCs running
window XP, Window 7, Unbuntu linux and debian linux, if that matters.

Thanks in advance,

Everett