Re: [TCLUG:9791] Palm Pilot and Seral Port

[Mike Hicks <hick0088@umn.edu>]

My previous reply seems to have been eaten..  I'll try this again..

> I saw that and I still ask the same questions.  My rommate had his
> serial ports enabled in the BIOS and yet didn't have them set to 3F8
> and 2F8 with the right IRQ's, he had them on automatic and it didn't
> work.

Okay, you're being fair there..  I only said 'enabled'..  I didn't say
if they were configured properly or not (they were)

> Also you didn't mention if the kernel found them.

Actually, I said the kernel detects them on boot.  (enough with the
bickering... ;-)

Additionally, I can get a rudimentary status report by looking at
/proc/tty/driver/serial (nothing amazing, and doesn't really tell me
anything useful.)

> You can cat
> any device even if Linux doesn't recognize it and get no error
> messages, you also won't get any data generally, but that doesn't mean
> that the device is dead.  What are you trying to talk to your pilot
> with?  I'm assuming pilot-xfer.  Do you get any errors on either end?

Well, I've tried several things:

1. 'cat /dev/ttyS0', and then hitting the HotSync button on the Pilot
base  (I've actually tried this on both of my serial ports, but for
simplicity's sake, I'll just give singular examples)  I don't see any
data come over the line (I would expect to see _something_).

2. 'pilot-xfer /dev/ttyS0 -l' (supposedly lists something..) 
Conversation goes something like this: 

$ pilot-xfer /dev/ttyS0 -l
Waiting for connection on /dev/ttyS0 (press the HotSync button now)...
(I usually hit [CTRL-C] after nothing happens in 30 seconds or so..)
Abort on signal!
Weird packet
$

The Pilot eventually times out..

3. I've tried KPilot, but it hasn't really done much..

> If you have a second machine or an external modem, ...
[snip modem stuff - I don't have an external one available, nor do I
have a null modem cable that would be appropriate..]

> Also, when you hook up the
> mouse does it work?  Does X find it, assuming X is configured for a
> serial mouse on the correct port.  Does gpm find it and allow the mouse
> to move around?

Well, about the only thing I can get to happen with the mouse is have
the Data Set Ready (DSR) line light up in when watching the serial port
with 'statserial'.  That's the only discernable action I've seen on my
serial ports all day..

I tried running gpm, but it didn't seem to do anything (the verbose
levels of gpm didn't really do me any good, either..)

By the way, can anyone interpret this:

# cat /proc/tty/driver/serial
serinfo:1.0 driver:4.27
0: uart:16550A port:3F8 irq:4 baud:9600 tx:62939 rx:62927 fe:155 brk:268
1: uart:16550A port:2E8 irq:3 baud:9600 tx:13428 rx:13007
2: uart:unknown port:3E8 irq:4 
3: uart:unknown port:2F8 irq:3

I understand most of it myself: the chips are 16550As (buffered 16-bit
serial controller, IIRC), the ports and irqs are normal settings, baud
is what it should be.  TX and RX would be transmit and receive (what
they're actually counting is uncertain, though), but what are 'fe' and
'brk'?

-- 
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\_||_/|_||_|_\\___/  \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __)                             
 [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088@umn.edu ]