4 port serial card.

4 port serial card.

[Ray Wells]

Hi All,

This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope it
s directed to the right place.

I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify. 

I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
someone on this list may be able to assist.

The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw 1992)
and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??). 

It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set comport
number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.

The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
DOS are supported.

I don't have the drivers :-(

Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
additional radio ports :-)

TIA

Ray Wells VK2TV

Re: 4 port serial card.

[pa3gcu]

On Sunday 12 January 2003 05:38, Ray Wells wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope
> it s directed to the right place.
>
> I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify.
>
> I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
> someone on this list may be able to assist.
>
> The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw
> 1992) and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??).
>
> It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set comport
> number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
> selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.
>
> The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
> DOS are supported.
>
> I don't have the drivers :-(

You may well have the driver(s), i am of the opinion that is it is stated 
that "unix" is supported then quite possably there is a driver in the kernel 
source for such an old card.
Try looking into /usr/src/linux/Documentation/Configure.help for a driver.
There is a list to be found with URL's in the Serial-HOWTO.
I used google.com to look for the word "4-port" i got more than 100 hits, 
there must be some hint for you in there as well.

>
> Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
> additional radio ports :-)
>
> TIA
>
> Ray Wells VK2TV
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/

Re: 4 port serial card.

[JACrux]

I have a similar card but the doc with it does not mention Linux - or anything 
else. I got it to work by editing the setserial file to tell Linux what to do 
(addresses and irqs)  with the four ports. But to make it work I had to 
disable all the standard serial ports in the BIOS so that the new card would 
not generate conflicts. I'm still using the same card - using the BIOS 
comport disabling strategy under Win 98, sorry about that.  Of course as you 
probably have a more modern machine, it might all be different.
John Crux  G3JAG

On Sunday 12 January 2003 05:38, Ray Wells wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope
> it s directed to the right place.
>
> I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify.
>
> I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
> someone on this list may be able to assist.
>
> The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw
> 1992) and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??).
>
> It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set comport
> number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
> selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.
>
> The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
> DOS are supported.
>
> I don't have the drivers :-(
>
> Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
> additional radio ports :-)
>
> TIA
>
> Ray Wells VK2TV
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: 4 port serial card.

[terry]

On Sun, 12 Jan 2003, Ray Wells wrote:

> I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify.

... if the card manufactured, or sold, in the u.s., it might have an fcc
id.  if it does, the fcc.gov site allows a search for them.

    "http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/" ...


-- 
73 , de WD0FPC
    aka: terry

Re: 4 port serial card.

[jbennett]

Not stated in the message, but I would assume that this is an ISA card.
Unless you are out of IRQs, I would suggest selecting individual IRQs. This
would eliminate the need for any special driver. You should then be able to
use setserial. I know these are dirty words here, but Norton Utilities
ndiag.exe for DOS might be able to help you determine if the IO address and
IRQ for each port is set correctly before trying to use setserial. When
using setserial, be sure you have copied and renamed the appropriate serial
script for your OS to init.d and use chkconfig so that it runs at startup.
Also would suggest using the -z option with setserial to insure you don't
inherit any prior settings. That can cause a great deal of grief.

GL es 73
John Bennett
n4xi

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Wells" <mvc@dodo.com.au>
To: <linux-hams@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 11:38 PM
Subject: 4 port serial card.


> Hi All,
>
> This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope
it
> s directed to the right place.
>
> I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify.
>
> I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
> someone on this list may be able to assist.
>
> The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw
1992)
> and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??).
>
> It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set
comport
> number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
> selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.
>
> The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
> DOS are supported.
>
> I don't have the drivers :-(
>
> Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
> additional radio ports :-)
>
> TIA
>
> Ray Wells VK2TV
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: 4 port serial card.

[Gary L. Grebus]

Does the documentation describe how to determine which UART is 
interrupting when the card is in single IRQ mode?  If so, you can put it 
in that mode, and use the set_multiport option to setserial.  It might 
be worth trying it as a clone of an AST Fourport card, as that was a 
fairly common multiport board with the features your describe.

	/gary
	K8LT

Re: 4 port serial card.

[Klaus Rueping]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Wells" <mvc@dodo.com.au>
To: <linux-hams@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2003 6:38 AM
Subject: 4 port serial card.


> Hi All,
>
> This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope
it
> s directed to the right place.
>
> I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify.
>
> I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
> someone on this list may be able to assist.
>
> The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw
1992)
> and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??).
>
> It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set
comport
> number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
> selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.
>
> The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
> DOS are supported.
>
> I don't have the drivers :-(
>
> Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
> additional radio ports :-)

Hi,
I have SuSE Linux 7.0 running with a four port serial card. All 4 ports
running
additional to the standard serial ports /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1.
The fourport card uses ONE IRQ and it runs fine. The Linux PC has 6 serial
ports
now. Try out the following:
Check if there is a mode available, where the I/O address is settable to
0x1a0 to 0x1b8
or anything else, may be settable from the DIP switches.
Find one free IRQ on your machine and set the operation of your card to this
singe IRQ,
settable by DIP switches.
The setup of your linux OS depends on your distribution.
For SuSE 6.0 to SuSE 7.3 you found it at /sbin/init.d/seial
You may edit this file and add the following lines (I think, this is for
SuSE only):
    run_setserial /dev/ttyS4 uart 16550 port 0x1A0 irq 7 fourport
    run_setserial /dev/ttyS5 uart 16550 port 0x1A8 irq 7 fourport
    run_setserial /dev/ttyS6 uart 16550 port 0x1B0 irq 7 fourport
    run_setserial /dev/ttyS7 uart 16550 port 0x1B8 irq 7 fourport
Be shure, the entries for IO Adress and IRQ are correct. This is the
configuration of my card :)

There is one important thing - Look at your card and see, if you have 16550
UARTs or
16550A UARTs ! If you have 16550A UARTs, the entry at the config file have
to be
16550A ...

Good luck - Please make a backup of your hardware settings and software
configuration
before you try it out...

Regards, Klaus.

Re: 4 port serial card.

[Ray Wells]

Hi All,

Lots of help resulting from my enquiry - thanks to everyone for their input.
I will respond privately to your answers/questions.

To summarise, the card is an ISA card using 16550 (not 16550A) UARTS and it
appears it might be a clone of an AST card.

The card supports a single IRQ (or individual IRQ's per port), and
independant I/O addresses for each port. It may be addressable with
appropriate parameters in setserial.

I need to run a single IRQ for the card because I'm out of IRQ's. Can get
IRQ 7 (might be 5, can't remember) back by recompiling the kernel without
parallel port support.

The Linux distribution in use is Debian Potato v 2.2 r0 with kernel 2.2.20.

The information received has given me a much better insight into what I am
(might be?) dealing with and I feel confident I will achieve success.

Regards ... Ray Wells VK2TV

-------Original Message-------

From: Ray Wells
Date: Sunday, 12 January 2003 04:36:29 PM
To: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org
Subject: 4 port serial card.

Hi All,

This enquiry relates to a four-port serial card for a Linux BBS so I hope it
s directed to the right place.

I acquired a four-port serial card that I'm trying to identify. 

I've checked out the latest serial-howto but to no avail so I'm hoping
someone on this list may be able to assist.

The card in question was made in Australia about 1992 (copyright allaw 1992)
and carries the identification COM-4 (a brand name ??). 

It has four 16550 UARTS and individual jumpers for each port to set comport
number and IRQ. Additionally, there is an 8 way DIP switch which permits
selection of operation under a single IRQ, among other things.

The documentation says that Windows, Pick, Xenix, Unix, Concurrent DOS and
DOS are supported.

I don't have the drivers :-(

Does anyone know anything about this card? My BBS is crying out for it for
additional radio ports :-)

TIA

Ray Wells VK2TV
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

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