[ubuntu-za] PCI Serial Adapter

[Charl Wentzel]

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

Charl Wentzel wrote:
> Could somebody point me to a useful site.  The google searches I've
> doesn't quit give me the answer I need.
> 
> I got a PC from a customer with no serial ports.  Since we needed it
> they've supplied me with a PCI serial card.  Some no-name brand, so I
> can't figure who the supplier is.  The accompanying CD also doesn't
> contain any help files or anything that mentions Linux.  Is this a
> hopeless case?
> 
> How do I know if the card is detected and in working order on Ubuntu?
> 
> I've tried using MiniCom and did a loopback on the port and then tested
> each port from /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/ttyS8, but got nothing.  Is there a
> better way?
Hi

Try the tips from this page.
http://www.ubuntu.sun.ac.za/wiki/index.php/HardwareCompatibility

Cheers

> 
> Charl
> 
> 

--------------------------------------------

Thanks guys, it got me going.  Here's what I've found so far...

1. Hardware manufacturer
I used my eyes (usually a good idea) and looked up the chip numbers on the 
board.  It seems the manufacturer (or at least that of the UART) is WCH.
Some Chinese company with no English information.  So I'm not expecting much
help here.

However, I now know that the UART appears to be a CH353L and the card is a 
WCH353SSP_SOP at 0803

2. lspci
Very usefull!  There was no clear indication here until I plugged out the 
card, rebooted and ran lspci again.  So I found it was the following entry:

"04:03:0 Serial Controller: Device 4348:7053 (rev 10)"

So at least it appears to be detected.

3. Linux Driver
Knowing the board I looked at the CD again and found a driver: ch35x_80x86.
It is copied to /usr/sbin and then added to rc.local to start it at boot up.

However, looking at the boot up text I saw the message:
"Cannot get serial info: Device or resource busy"

So it seems the driver is failing to load

4. Other
Looking at the Readme that accompanies the driver it seems it makes the 
serial ports available on /dev/ttyS2 and /dev/ttyS3.  These nodes already
exist on my server.  Is it possible that they could be in use?


Any ideas on what to do next?
Charl