LinuxQuestions.org - need driver help for PCI serial splitter

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need driver help for PCI serial splitter

I have a PCI card that is a that has 8 serial ports. I have the windows drivers for it, but I do not have the linux drivers. I am running Ubuntu 8.04.1 32-bit, 2.6.24-19-generic.

output of lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)

01:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev c0)

01:09.0 Serial controller: Timedia Technology Co Ltd PCI2S550 (Dual 16550 UART) (rev 01)

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev b0)

03:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems Unknown device 5901 (rev 06)

I am new to linux, so ANY help will be greatly appreciated.

Do you mean the device described with line
'01:09.0 Serial controller: Timedia Technology Co Ltd PCI2S550 (Dual 16550 UART)' ?

If so what way it can have 8 ports if it reports 'Dual 16550 UART'

I've found also this link with info "This double serial port card..."

That may be it. I'm not sure. If it is, it is not working because I can't use any of those serial lines that should be associated with it. I actually tried to run through all the possible serial lines (ttyS0-ttySf).

Maybe if I tell you what I'm doing that will help. I'm on the robotics team at my school. We are trying to migrate our robot to ubuntu from windows XP. In windows, we send a command out serial 7 to communicate with our micro controller. This serial 7 is actually on that PCI card. Hope this helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mduncan8 (Post 3324345)

Well, COM7 may be associated with that card, but the docs and links above point to it having only 2 ports.

What other hardware do you have? If you've got a mobo with two serial ports onboard, those would be ttyS0/S1. And when you say you "tried to run through" the other ports....how?? Most foolproof way is to get a terminal plugged in to the port, and echo some chars out to it (hyperterminal in a windows laptop works for a simple test). Just type in "echo "testing testingasdfasdfasdf" > /dev/ttyS0"...run up through the rest of the ports. If you don't see any text on the terminal window, you may have issues with your hardware (bad cable, etc.). Once you see text, you'll know what port to use.

I don't think that the card in the link is ours, but it may be similar. In our software program that runs the robot we set which port to send the command out. I tried all the serial ports there. The command that we use is:

Code:

Using System.Ports.IO

SerialPort ports = new SerialPort("ttyS0",19200,Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);

This command sets the port and it's settings.
I know that it works to communicate through the serial because I connected the micro controller directly to a desktop running the same version of Ubuntu and it worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mduncan8 (Post 3324459)

Code:

Using System.Ports.IO

SerialPort ports = new SerialPort("ttyS0",19200,Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);

Well if you've ruled out the hardware, then it can only be a software component. Since you're using the same software elsewhere, that means the driver isn't working right. Since the lspci output you posted says it's only a dual UART board, it's probably only recognizing two ports. Does the actual, physical board match the description given by lspci?

I double checked the motherboard today and found that the dual port device listed is actually a two port firewire card that someone else installed on it. So I'm guessing that that card is the one showing up in the lspci output.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mduncan8 (Post 3325069)

That'll definitely cause a problem with the other five ports. ;)