SUMMARY: PCI Alphastation and serial ports

From: Todd Kover <kovert_at_umiacs.UMD.EDU>
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 1995 20:02:20 -0400

My original query:

> I have an Alphastation 200 4/166 (PCI model) running OSF/1 3.2a, and am
> having a devil of a time talking to the serial ports (tty00 and tty01).
>
> Initially, with the off-the-CD install, attempts to tip over to it would
> result in the machine panicing. Since I'd heard of this happening on
> DECstations under Ultrix, when the major/ minor device numbers were wrong.
> They were setup to match our DEC 3000 model 300LX's, which were:
>
> crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 24, 2 Apr 7 12:50 /dev/tty00
> crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 24, 3 Apr 7 12:50 /dev/tty01
>
> The serial ports work fine on these. I attempted to recreate the devices
> using 'MAKEDEV scc' (the nearest I could find to the tty), and that resulted
> in the same major/minor device numbers. (24,2/3).
>
> Then, grasping at straws, I attempted to setup LAT, and try the major/minors
> provided there:
>
> crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 5, 0 Jul 18 11:36 /dev/tty00
> crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 5, 1 Jul 18 11:36 /dev/tty01
>
> what ends up happening in thiscase, is the machine doesn't panic, but tip
> never seems to sync up with the modem attached to the serial port (no lights
> blink on the modem, it echos every character back at me).
>
> anyone have any ideas what I'm missing on this one? Perhaps it's just a
> simple matter of the major/minors being wrong, or something else entirely.

Answer:

I was using the wrong serial device drivers. The new PCI based alphas are
the "tulip" interfaces, and the driver is called ace. A "MAKEDEV ace0"
did the trick.

As an added bonus, the sizer command was pointed out which lists all devices
on the system. Of most importance:

[root_at_mickey:21] ls -l /dev/tty0*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 35, 0 Jul 19 20:01 /dev/tty00
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 35, 1 Jul 19 19:49 /dev/tty01

thanks to Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu> and
Charles C. H. Jui <jui_at_phoebe.physics.utah.edu> for their responses.

-Todd
                                  -- o --
Todd Kover // If, after having been exposed to someone's
kovert_at_umiacs.umd.edu \X/ presence, you feel as though you've lost
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~kovert a quart of plasma, avoid that presence.
Received on Thu Jul 20 1995 - 02:20:38 NZST

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