Hi @mvernengo,
What revision of the Zedboard do you have? Neither the Rev D nor the Rev F of the Zedboard that I have match the silkscreen image you posted with the Mode numbering (my two versions list the MIO numbers), though the jumper numbering (JP7..11) does match. My concern is that if the jumper numbering is identical that then the Mode[X] silkscreen labels would not readily line up with the orientation listed in Table 18 of the Zedboard User Guide that Avnet created here: https://digilent.com/reference/_media/reference/programmable-logic/zedboard/zedboard_ug.pdf.
Presuming the latter situation, your setup of Mode3 and Mode2 being set high would have the device boot from Quad SPI flash memory (which is based on Mode2 high, and both Mode1 and Mode0 low), which from my understanding is not loaded or prepared by default with the Out-Of-Box material. That would be loaded through the SD card image (Boot Modes 2 and 1 set to logic high), which you can find in the Zedboard Resource Center here: https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/zedboard/start#additional_resources.
I would also put Mode3 to logic low to set the device to Cascaded JTAG rather than Independent JTAG so that you can more readily access the device as per Table 22 in above linked user guide.
As for the serial terminal not responding in readable characters, my gut reaction would be to double check the baud rate (by default Zynq designs use 115200 baud, but Tera Term uses 9600 baud by default).
Let me know what you find out.
Thanks,
JColvin
