Startech PEX4S553 4 port RS232 not working
 

Just switched this computer from Win& to Linux mint 17.3 64bit and everything is working except the Startech PEX4S553 serial board and the Netgear WN311B wireless internet adapter. The Startech is supposed to be compatible with linux and set serial is installed.

The netgear board is very old so may not be able to use it, however it does work with Win7.

are there any RS232 boards that are known to work with Linux Mint? Need it to be able to programme and operate the kenwood and yaesu transceivers. I will need a minimum count of 3 ports.

According to the documentation you need "linux 3.5.x to 4.4.x LTS Versions Only" which Mint 17.3 should meet. You can check the output of the dmesg command to see if the ports are recognized and assigned a ttySx. The board driver module is 99xx which you can check if it is being loaded via the lsmod command. If not in the output you can try loading it via

sudo modprobe 99xx

If it does not exist you can try downloading and installing the driver from the site below.

https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapt...-UART~PEX4S553

Howdy and welcome to LQ.

I agree that using Ubuntu LTS would be a better choice for technical uses as well as driver support.

The netgear may be some broadcom deal.

I'd work on that theory until you post lspci.

I'd also assume I could get it running native linux or if worse comes to worse, ndiswrapper.

PEX4S553 serial not working
 

received email asking if resolved and to mark it. It has not been resolved and for the moment I have given up as none of the suggestions have worked. Thread Tools does not show the option to mark it as resolved so consider it as resolved and when I get back to it will open another thread if needed.

Hello and welcome to the forum :)

No, another thread is not needed but I'm curious why you didn't see the option to mark the thread as "SOLVED." Did you look for this directly under your initial post? :confused:

What did the command "sudo modprobe 99xx" come up with? Also, if you would, please open a terminal and post the results of...

Disclaimer: Be careful with these commands. Ones that are prefaced with "su" or "sudo" will essentially allow root access to your system. Mistakes could possibly damage or even destroy your OS. ;)

Regards...

have not tried sudo modprobe 99xx tor lspci~nnk . trying to catch up on the mess caused by a week of straight rain, have not had time to do anything else , anyway there is really no need for the ports until I get my radio gear back from service and then I will need them for the control and programming cables.

will try later when I get finished for the day and put another post up.

as far as the solved option it's there now, I only had one post at that time so maybe I needed to have 2 or more before it was there.

startech serial board not working
 

sudo modprobe 99xx "fatal module 99xx not found"

lspci-nnk "command not found"

I have the linux download from startech but it's instructions are not helpful.

Whoops! I forgot to include a space. Try it this way instead...

Thanks! :)

03:00.0 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.1 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.2 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.3 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial

Is this what you were looking for?

Hi...

In part. I was looking for the entire readout if you could provide that. ;)

Regards...

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $ lspci -nnk
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller [10de:03ea] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge [10de:03e0] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SMBus [10de:03eb] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: nForce2_smbus
00:01.2 RAM memory [0500]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller [10de:03f5] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
00:02.0 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 USB 1.1 Controller [10de:03f1] (rev a3)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci
00:02.1 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 USB 2.0 Controller [10de:03f2] (rev a3)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci
00:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge [10de:03f3] (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio [10de:03f0] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:06.0 IDE interface [0101]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 IDE [10de:03ec] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: pata_amd
00:07.0 Bridge [0680]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Ethernet [10de:03ef] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: forcedeth
00:08.0 IDE interface [0101]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller [10de:03f6] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv
00:08.1 IDE interface [0101]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller [10de:03f6] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv
00:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge [10de:03e8] (rev a2)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:0b.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge [10de:03e9] (rev a2)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:0c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge [10de:03e9] (rev a2)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
Kernel driver in use: k8temp
01:06.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4329] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Netgear WN311B RangeMax Next 270 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter [1385:7d00]
Kernel driver in use: wl
01:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller [1106:3044] (rev 80)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a61]
Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8300 GS] [10de:0423] (rev a1)
Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0494]
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
03:00.0 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.1 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.2 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
03:00.3 Serial controller [0700]: MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. 4-Port PCIe Serial Adapter [9710:9904]
Subsystem: Device [a000:1000]
Kernel driver in use: serial
andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $

Don't know where the Vostro 420 series came from though. The computer is an HP Pavilion Media Centre M8100n TVPC . I had to remove the TV board to make room for the RS232 board.
The Netgear WN311B Rangemax wireless adapter is also there but will not work either.

Hi...

Concerning your serial board, I was first able to find some information here that states a driver was found or available for your device in several Linux kernels. However, in your case, I'm not sure if the same driver was included in the distribution. Someone would need to help you further ascertain that.

To find out your kernel version, simply use this command...

If it turns out there is no driver installed, I was able find additional information here along with (I'm guessing) a Linux driver for your card here. :)

Regards...

Hi...

The correct driver appears to be installed. Did you install it? if so, how?

Also, could you provide the readouts from these commands...

There might be an additional readout I will need later. Thanks! :)

Regards...

Startech serial boaed
 

No , I did not install the driver. If you are referring to the Startech board the install procedure has several steps with one of them mentioning that it has to be compiled first . at that point I stopped as I do not know what they mean . The Netgear driver if it's installed then it did that by
itself as nothing I tried seemed to work .

when I get the FT950 transceiver back from service I can try to connect it again.

I'm afraid it you want your device (the Startech card) to work then you will need to learn. If you want to try and do this yourself, there's no other way. However, there are other options, which include installing a distribution that has the correct driver and can set up your card, if one exists, or getting help through a local LUG (Linux user's group) or a local computer repair shop that can work on Linux systems.

You can also see if anyone in the Mint forums can better guide you through this or has more knowledge about your card.

If you want to try doing it yourself, one way you could start is gaining more familiarity with the command through tutorials such as these...

http://linuxcommand.org/

http://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial/

Ok, thanks. I still need the readouts I requested. ;)

Regards...

lsmod

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $ lsmod
Module Size Used by
nvidia 10567680 41
rfcomm 69632 4
bnep 20480 2
bluetooth 491520 10 bnep,rfcomm
joydev 20480 0
wl 6369280 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek 81920 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 69632 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
binfmt_misc 20480 1
uvcvideo 90112 0
videobuf2_vmalloc 16384 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops 16384 1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core 53248 1 uvcvideo
v4l2_common 16384 1 videobuf2_core
videodev 159744 3 uvcvideo,v4l2_common,videobuf2_core
media 24576 2 uvcvideo,videodev
hid_logitech_hidpp 20480 0
snd_usb_audio 180224 1
snd_usbmidi_lib 32768 1 snd_usb_audio
dm_multipath 24576 0
scsi_dh 16384 1 dm_multipath
kvm_amd 61440 0
kvm 479232 1 kvm_amd
snd_hda_intel 36864 5
snd_hda_controller 32768 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec 143360 4 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep 20480 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
serio_raw 16384 0
k8temp 16384 0
edac_core 53248 0
edac_mce_amd 24576 0
snd_pcm 106496 5 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
drm 344064 3 nvidia
snd_seq_midi 16384 0
snd_seq_midi_event 16384 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi 32768 2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
shpchp 40960 0
snd_seq 65536 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device 16384 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer 32768 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
cfg80211 524288 1 wl
snd 86016 23 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_ge neric,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore 16384 2 snd,snd_hda_codec
8250_fintek 16384 0
tpm_infineon 20480 0
mac_hid 16384 0
i2c_nforce2 16384 0
parport_pc 32768 0
ppdev 20480 0
lp 20480 0
parport 45056 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
dm_mirror 24576 0
dm_region_hash 24576 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 20480 2 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror
hid_logitech_dj 20480 0
usbhid 53248 0
hid 110592 4 usbhid,hid_logitech_dj,hid_logitech_hidpp
uas 24576 0
usb_storage 69632 1 uas
pata_acpi 16384 0
psmouse 114688 0
firewire_ohci 40960 0
sata_nv 28672 2
firewire_core 69632 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 16384 1 firewire_core
forcedeth 69632 0
pata_amd 20480 0
andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $

iwconfigiwconfig

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $ iwconfig
eth1 no wireless extensions.

wlan2 IEEE 802.11abg ESSID:"andrew-d7148d38-wireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:24:B2:0B:4A:9E
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

lo no wireless extensions.

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $

Hi...

Hmm. it looks like the "wl" module is active and you are connected to your network. Let's get some additional information with these commands...

Disclaimer: Be careful with these commands. Ones that are prefaced with "su" or "sudo" will essentially allow root access to your system. Mistakes could possibly damage or even destroy your OS.

Thanks! :)

dmsg

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $ dmesg | grep -iC 3 "wlan2"
[ 17.632072] sound hdaudioC0D0: Line=0x1a
[ 17.632074] sound hdaudioC0D0: Line=0x1c
[ 17.769100] wlan0: Broadcom BCM4329 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.30.223.248 (r487574)
[ 17.774378] wl 0000:01:06.0 wlan2: renamed from wlan0
[ 17.797278] systemd-udevd[431]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan2
[ 17.802225] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.20
[ 17.802316] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 17.802318] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $

sudo lshw -c network

andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for andrew:
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4321 802.11b/g/n
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:01:06.0
logical name: wlan2
version: 01
serial: 00:24:b2:8b:d5:97
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.30.223.248 (r487574) ip=10.0.0.9 latency=64 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
resources: irq:17 memory:fdff8000-fdffbfff
andrew@andrew-Vostro-420-Series ~ $

am using a tenda usb wireless adapter . will change them in the morning and see if the netgear board is working. the tenda usb has very poor signal strength 1 to 2 bars as compared to the netgear which has 3 out of 4 bars on the windows OS 7. tenda keeps dropping the wireless connection even though the computer and wireless router are about 25 to 30 ft apart line of sight.

Hi...

If you didn't disable the Netgear card while using the USB adapter, that could explain why the connection wasn't working. ;)

Regards...

I took the netgear board completely out since I could not connect to the router with it. made no difference. don't see how anything that small could have an effective antenna anyway even at 2.4 ghz.The usb connection was working , just had very low signal strength on the metre. would drop below the reception threshold and disconnect and reconnect randomly. am amateur radio operator and TV service tech for 40 years. the system is only as good as the antenna no matter how good the rest of it is .

Hi...

No problem, I understand. Broadcom can be difficult to deal with in Linux. Well, I guess that leaves the Startech card. Please review the options I've mentioned in post #16. :)

Regards...