Update on problems with UPS

Update on problems with UPS

[Ross Boylan]

I wrote a few weeks ago about some problems using an APC UPS with the
serial port.

I've made some progress, but things are still not quite working right.

Originally, I got "LSR safety check engaged" on ttyS1 where the APC
was connected.  This went away when I disabled COM1 (aka ttyS0) in
BIOS, since I no longer use it.  However, I am still sharing an IRQ
between ttyS2 (from my ISA modem card) and the parallel printer.

It's not clear the sharing is causing trouble--both seem to be working
OK.  Does anyone know if it's a problem?

At any rate, it is puzzling to me that I can't control the IRQ for the
modem.  Only COM1/2 are configurable from BIOS.  I can also control
the parallel port from the BIOS, and I though putting it to IRQ5 would
force COM3 elsewhere.  It doesn't seem to.  I can reprogram the modem
through isapnp, but unless I put it to the IRQ 5 that ttyS2 gets on
startup, it doesn't work.  (Some people suggested the card might be
set through jumpers, but it's not).  I've also tried restarting after
reprogramming the modem, in hopes the new IRQ would stick, but it
doesn't.

Can anyone clarify what is going on with COM3?  I thought the modem
serial port was actually part of the card, and that reseting the card
through pnp would change the modem and the serial port.  The behavior
I'm seeing looks more like the serial port and the modem are distinct
devices, and pnp only affects the modem.  (My other theory is that pnp
affects both, but the serial driver doesn't know what's going on if I
move the location after startup.  This would also explain why the
modem doesn't work after I move the IRQ, but I thought I understood
someone on this list saying the serial driver could cope with such
moves.) 


On the original problem with the UPS, there is progress too.  It is no
longer disabled by the system.  I believe the cause is the the apcupsd
demon can now talk to the port, and puts more appropriate values out
to it.

Things aren't quite right at this level either, because the demon is
not responding, or responding properly, to power out signals.  I have
not yet had time to triple check my configuration settings for the
software; they might be off.  Or the software may not be quite right
for the cable I have, which has a slightly different model number than
any listed in the apcupsd software description.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  If you have any thoughts,
answers or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Re: Update on problems with UPS

[Gerald Emig]

Hi Ross,

you write that your modem card is ISA, that means it is a little bit out
of date.
I remember there were such cards that neither had jumpers nor
weren't PNP. Instead they had to be configured with a special SETUP
program, most often a DOS program. I still have a sound card that must
be handled in that manner. To make it work under Linux, I had to insert
the card in a DOS PC and confiure it there.

If this is the case with your card and you do not have the config
utility, you can try the website of the manufacturer (silly to note).

If nothing helps, try to set your parallel port to use IRQ 7 in the
BIOS.

Gerald

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 22:32:20 -0800
Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org> wrote:

> I wrote a few weeks ago about some problems using an APC UPS with the
> serial port.
> 
> I've made some progress, but things are still not quite working right.
> 
> Originally, I got "LSR safety check engaged" on ttyS1 where the APC
> was connected.  This went away when I disabled COM1 (aka ttyS0) in
> BIOS, since I no longer use it.  However, I am still sharing an IRQ
> between ttyS2 (from my ISA modem card) and the parallel printer.
> 
> It's not clear the sharing is causing trouble--both seem to be working
> OK.  Does anyone know if it's a problem?
> 
> At any rate, it is puzzling to me that I can't control the IRQ for the
> modem.  Only COM1/2 are configurable from BIOS.  I can also control
> the parallel port from the BIOS, and I though putting it to IRQ5 would
> force COM3 elsewhere.  It doesn't seem to.  I can reprogram the modem
> through isapnp, but unless I put it to the IRQ 5 that ttyS2 gets on
> startup, it doesn't work.  (Some people suggested the card might be
> set through jumpers, but it's not).  I've also tried restarting after
> reprogramming the modem, in hopes the new IRQ would stick, but it
> doesn't.
> 
> Can anyone clarify what is going on with COM3?  I thought the modem
> serial port was actually part of the card, and that reseting the card
> through pnp would change the modem and the serial port.  The behavior
> I'm seeing looks more like the serial port and the modem are distinct
> devices, and pnp only affects the modem.  (My other theory is that pnp
> affects both, but the serial driver doesn't know what's going on if I
> move the location after startup.  This would also explain why the
> modem doesn't work after I move the IRQ, but I thought I understood
> someone on this list saying the serial driver could cope with such
> moves.) 
> 
> 
> On the original problem with the UPS, there is progress too.  It is no
> longer disabled by the system.  I believe the cause is the the apcupsd
> demon can now talk to the port, and puts more appropriate values out
> to it.
> 
> Things aren't quite right at this level either, because the demon is
> not responding, or responding properly, to power out signals.  I have
> not yet had time to triple check my configuration settings for the
> software; they might be off.  Or the software may not be quite right
> for the cable I have, which has a slightly different model number than
> any listed in the apcupsd software description.
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to read this.  If you have any thoughts,
> answers or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
> linux-serial" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html



Gerald Emig

--
EMIG Software           Tel. 06858-6197, Mobil: 0163-4751706
Engelstr. 17            Fax. 0721-151-348672
66564 Ottweiler-Fürth   http://www.emig-software.de
Germany                 e-mail: gme@emig-software.de

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Re: Update on problems with UPS

[David Lawyer]

On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:32:20PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote:
> I wrote a few weeks ago about some problems using an APC UPS with the
> serial port.
> 
> I've made some progress, but things are still not quite working right.
> 
> Originally, I got "LSR safety check engaged" on ttyS1 where the APC
> was connected.  This went away when I disabled COM1 (aka ttyS0) in
> BIOS, since I no longer use it.  However, I am still sharing an IRQ
> between ttyS2 (from my ISA modem card) and the parallel printer.
> 
> It's not clear the sharing is causing trouble--both seem to be working
> OK.  Does anyone know if it's a problem?
It may cause a problem if you are printing while using the modem.
> 
> At any rate, it is puzzling to me that I can't control the IRQ for the
> modem.  Only COM1/2 are configurable from BIOS.  I can also control
> the parallel port from the BIOS, and I though putting it to IRQ5 would
> force COM3 elsewhere.  It doesn't seem to.
Some devices can only be set to a limited number of IRQs and all
possibilities may cause a conflict so it may use one of these conflicts:
IRQ5

> I can reprogram the modem through isapnp, but unless I put it to the
> IRQ 5 that ttyS2 gets on startup, it doesn't work.  (Some people
> suggested the card might be set through jumpers, but it's not).  I've
> also tried restarting after reprogramming the modem, in hopes the new
> IRQ would stick, but it doesn't.

That's right.  PnP resources such as IRQs set in a device disappear when
powered down.  You've got to run setserial to tell the serial driver
what you set with isapnp.  Another way to get it to work is to setserial
to IRQ0 which will use the serial port using inefficient polling, but it
still should work.

> Can anyone clarify what is going on with COM3?  I thought the modem
> serial port was actually part of the card, and that reseting the card
> through pnp would change the modem and the serial port.  The behavior
> I'm seeing looks more like the serial port and the modem are distinct
> devices
Yes but the modem is not listed in /dev so it's not a device in that
sense.

>, and pnp only affects the modem. 

It only affects the serial port on the modem card.

> (My other theory is that pnp affects both,
It only affects the serial port.
> but the serial driver doesn't know what's going on if I move the
> location after startup.  
Correct
> This would also explain why the modem doesn't work after I move the
> IRQ,
Correct
> but I thought I understood someone on this list saying the serial
> driver could cope with such moves.) 

Well, it can if it uses its own isapnp to set the IRQ but you explicitly
ran isapnp.
> 
[snip about UPS as I know almost nothing about them]
			David Lawyer

Re: Update on problems with UPS

[Ross Boylan]

Thank you for all this useful information.  I'm not sure I followed
all of it, so I want to clarify a couple of points.

I talked about pnp reseting the modem or the serial port on the card.
You say it would only affect the port.  What I had in mind was that
pnp might reset the IRQ for one device, but not the other, so they
wouldn't be able to communicate.  Are you saying that's so?

I think what you mean is that only the serial port needs an IRQ, since
the modem talks to the serial port talks to the computer.  So
regardless of how I set pnp, the serial port and modem will be able to
communicate.  Correct?

Further, the reason I lose communication with the port/modem after
manually running pnp is that the serial driver does not know that the
port has moved.  If I manually change the IRQ with pnp, I need to
manually tell the driver with setserial.  Correct?

Thanks.

On Sun, Feb 23, 2003 at 12:01:37AM -0800, David Lawyer wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:32:20PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote:
> > I wrote a few weeks ago about some problems using an APC UPS with the
> > serial port.
> > 
> > I've made some progress, but things are still not quite working right.
> > 
> > Originally, I got "LSR safety check engaged" on ttyS1 where the APC
> > was connected.  This went away when I disabled COM1 (aka ttyS0) in
> > BIOS, since I no longer use it.  However, I am still sharing an IRQ
> > between ttyS2 (from my ISA modem card) and the parallel printer.
> > 
> > It's not clear the sharing is causing trouble--both seem to be working
> > OK.  Does anyone know if it's a problem?
> It may cause a problem if you are printing while using the modem.
> > 
> > At any rate, it is puzzling to me that I can't control the IRQ for the
> > modem.  Only COM1/2 are configurable from BIOS.  I can also control
> > the parallel port from the BIOS, and I though putting it to IRQ5 would
> > force COM3 elsewhere.  It doesn't seem to.
> Some devices can only be set to a limited number of IRQs and all
> possibilities may cause a conflict so it may use one of these conflicts:
> IRQ5
> 
> > I can reprogram the modem through isapnp, but unless I put it to the
> > IRQ 5 that ttyS2 gets on startup, it doesn't work.  (Some people
> > suggested the card might be set through jumpers, but it's not).  I've
> > also tried restarting after reprogramming the modem, in hopes the new
> > IRQ would stick, but it doesn't.
> 
> That's right.  PnP resources such as IRQs set in a device disappear when
> powered down.  You've got to run setserial to tell the serial driver
> what you set with isapnp.  Another way to get it to work is to setserial
> to IRQ0 which will use the serial port using inefficient polling, but it
> still should work.
> 
> > Can anyone clarify what is going on with COM3?  I thought the modem
> > serial port was actually part of the card, and that reseting the card
> > through pnp would change the modem and the serial port.  The behavior
> > I'm seeing looks more like the serial port and the modem are distinct
> > devices
> Yes but the modem is not listed in /dev so it's not a device in that
> sense.
> 
> >, and pnp only affects the modem. 
> 
> It only affects the serial port on the modem card.
> 
> > (My other theory is that pnp affects both,
> It only affects the serial port.
> > but the serial driver doesn't know what's going on if I move the
> > location after startup.  
> Correct
> > This would also explain why the modem doesn't work after I move the
> > IRQ,
> Correct
> > but I thought I understood someone on this list saying the serial
> > driver could cope with such moves.) 
> 
> Well, it can if it uses its own isapnp to set the IRQ but you explicitly
> ran isapnp.
> > 
> [snip about UPS as I know almost nothing about them]
> 			David Lawyer
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-serial" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

RE: Update on problems with UPS

[Ed Vance]

Hi Ross,

I'm not the sender that you were replying to, but here's my attempt at the
answers: 8)

On Thu, Feb 27, 2003 at 12:43 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
> Thank you for all this useful information.  I'm not sure I followed
> all of it, so I want to clarify a couple of points.
> 
> I talked about pnp resetting the modem or the serial port on the card.
> You say it would only affect the port.  What I had in mind was that
> pnp might reset the IRQ for one device, but not the other, so they
> wouldn't be able to communicate.  Are you saying that's so?
> 
No. The modem is hardware attached to the serial side of the serial port and
cannot be pried loose with mere software. In fact, the modem part's _only_
logical connection to the system is through the serial port.

> I think what you mean is that only the serial port needs an IRQ, since
> the modem talks to the serial port talks to the computer.  So
> regardless of how I set pnp, the serial port and modem will be able to
> communicate.  Correct?
> 
Yes. Exactly.

> Further, the reason I lose communication with the port/modem after
> manually running pnp is that the serial driver does not know that the
> port has moved.  If I manually change the IRQ with pnp, I need to
> manually tell the driver with setserial.  Correct?
> 
Yes. The serial driver knows nothing about the changes made by pnp.

> Thanks.
> 
Cheers,
Ed

Re: Update on problems with UPS

[David Lawyer]

> 
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2003 at 12:43 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
> > I talked about pnp resetting the modem or the serial port on the card.
> > You say it would only affect the port.  What I had in mind was that
> > pnp might reset the IRQ for one device, but not the other, so they
> > wouldn't be able to communicate.  Are you saying that's so?
> > 
On Thu, Feb 27, 2003 at 01:29:10PM -0800, Ed Vance wrote:
> No. The modem is hardware attached to the serial side of the serial port and
> cannot be pried loose with mere software. In fact, the modem part's _only_
> logical connection to the system is through the serial port.

After I wrote the following, I realized that the gist of it has already
been stated.  But here it is.  The modem itself has no IRQ or IO address.
Only the serial port that the modem is connected to has an IRQ and IO
address.  This is true both for an internal and external modem.  But for
an internal modem, it's serial port is located on the same card and
can't be used for anything else except for the modem.

			David Lawyer