*BSD News Article 6799


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!abe
From: abe@netcom.com (David Abercrombie)
Subject: STB 4-COM serial card, com driver
Message-ID: <1992Oct21.124822.8843@netcom.com>
Keywords: IRQ, port, multiport, com, driver
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 12:48:22 GMT
Lines: 46

I am trying to get an STB 4-COM serial board to work reliably
under 386BSD.  This board has four ports, each can be assigned 
one of eight possible IRQ lines (2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, or 15)
and one of eight possible I/O port addresses.  This board has
the potential to be a great way to get multiple ports active 
using seperate interupts.  

I am having some problems with the board, however, and suspect
com driver problems.  I am using the standard 0.1 driver as 
updated with Christopher Rabitschko's com0 patch and Rodney
Grime's fifo triger patch (patches #18 and #45 in Terry's
patchkit).  Is there any more recent driver or patches that
I should be aware of before I delve into the driver code?

After re-configuring and compiling for the new IRQs and port 
addresses, I sometimes can not use the ports, but sometimes they 
work great!  I have OS/2 on the same box, and can use them with no 
problem.  If I turn the machine on and select booting BSD, I have the 
following problem:  I can start kermit, select my port and speed,
and connect to the modem.  I then type "at" and hit enter to try
to get the "OK" result.  Sometimes, I get no characters echoed
to my screen after the initial "a", but sometimes I get the "at"
echoed followed by a "K" but missing the "O".  In both cases, the
keyboard is not responsive, not even to Ctrl-Alt-Del.  Occaisionaly,
I can type a few "at" commands before the keyboard freezes.

What has me puzzled is that I can boot into OS/2, use the ports
for a while, and do a warm boot into BSD.  I can then usually
use the ports without any problems!  It seems almost as if
a UART register is not getting "set" or "cleared" properly by BSD, 
but it is "cleared" or "set" by OS/2 ???  This board does not
use "real" 16550A UARTS, but instead has a single four-port chip.
I have ordered the programmers  manual for this chip to compare
with my National Semiconductor UART Handbook.  In the meantime,
does anyone have any clues about what is going on here?  
Has anyone else gotten this board working 100% of the time?
Is there any new, improved, (perhaps beta) com driver that I
should try?  

Thanks!


-- 
Dave Abercrombie                lyra!abe@infoserv.com
Oakland, CA                        abe@lyra.UUCP
(510) 652-7131                     abe@netcom.com