Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Bruce Marshall]

Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel  (2.6.7)

I was told back when 2.6.4 was new that the selection of a Moxa serial card 
was not possible if an SMP kernel was selected.  I used the work-around of 
not using an SMP kernel.

My question:   Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a 
temporary situation?

Thanks.

-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Bruce S. Marshall  bmarsh@bmarsh.com  Bellaire, MI         06/17/04 11:08  +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
"There is nothing so annoying as to have two people go right on talking
when you're interrupting."  --Mark Twain

Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Randy.Dunlap]

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 11:12:39 -0400 Bruce Marshall wrote:

| Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel  (2.6.7)
| 
| I was told back when 2.6.4 was new that the selection of a Moxa serial card 
| was not possible if an SMP kernel was selected.  I used the work-around of 
| not using an SMP kernel.
| 
| My question:   Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a 
| temporary situation?

It's permanent until someone takes the time and trouble to fix it.

Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because
they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections.
See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,

Is anyone working on this?  not that I've heard of.
Have you tried this email address:
Copyright (C) 1999-2000  Moxa Technologies (support@moxa.com.tw).

Is anyone out there motivated to fix this?  This is Bruce's real
question, I believe.

--
~Randy

Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Ragnar Hojland Espinosa]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 08:41:32AM -0700, Randy.Dunlap wrote:
> Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because
> they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections.
> See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
> They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,
> 
> Is anyone working on this?  not that I've heard of.
> Have you tried this email address:
> Copyright (C) 1999-2000  Moxa Technologies (support@moxa.com.tw).

I'd try writing and asking about it;  they were very helpful when we
had problems.
-- 
Ragnar Hojland - Project Manager
Linalco "Specialists in Linux and Free Software"
http://www.linalco.com  Tel: +34-91-4561700

Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Bruce Marshall]

On Friday 18 June 2004 08:09 am, Ragnar Hojland Espinosa wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 08:41:32AM -0700, Randy.Dunlap wrote:
> > Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because
> > they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections.
> > See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
> > They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,
> >
> > Is anyone working on this?  not that I've heard of.
> > Have you tried this email address:
> > Copyright (C) 1999-2000  Moxa Technologies (support@moxa.com.tw).
>
> I'd try writing and asking about it;  they were very helpful when we
> had problems.

I agree....  I have written to them - they have responded already asking for 
more info - and I'm waiting to hear back from them.
-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Bruce S. Marshall  bmarsh@bmarsh.com  Bellaire, MI         06/18/04 08:56  +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
"The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve
    disorder"  -Former Chicago Mayor Daley during 1968 convention

Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Bruce Marshall]

On Friday 18 June 2004 08:09 am, Ragnar Hojland Espinosa wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 08:41:32AM -0700, Randy.Dunlap wrote:
> > Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because
> > they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections.
> > See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
> > They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,
> >
> > Is anyone working on this?  not that I've heard of.
> > Have you tried this email address:
> > Copyright (C) 1999-2000  Moxa Technologies (support@moxa.com.tw).
>
> I'd try writing and asking about it;  they were very helpful when we
> had problems.

Yes, they are responsive.   Here is the current reply:

Dear Bruce,   
 
I've got updated news from the R&D Div., they are testing the latest beta 
version of the driver for all the Moxa cards, only they can not provide me 
with a precise schedule. Your case will be remaining open until it is 
resolved, I will also keep you update with the information. 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Stephen Lin / Technical Support Engineer 
 Moxa Technologies Co., Ltd.



-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Bruce S. Marshall  bmarsh@bmarsh.com  Bellaire, MI         06/21/04 10:06  +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real
     money."       -Senator Everett Dirksen

Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

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On Thu, 2004-06-17 11:12:39 -0400, Bruce Marshall <bmarsh@bmarsh.com>
wrote in message <200406171112.39485.bmarsh@bmarsh.com>:
> Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel  (2.6.7)

> My question:   Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a 
> temporary situation?

It seems the Moxa driver is known-broken when running on a SMP system.
So this is permanent until somebody hacks it to work on multi-processor
machines...

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
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Re: Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

[Sam Wormleighton]

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