New Serial Port Added

I have openSuse 11.1 and have just added a new serial port card. Do I need to do something to get the card going? My application doesn’t seem to be getting data from the serial card. How would I test status. Do I use setserial .

There are a few console commands that will help verify that your serial port is active

dmesg |grep ttyS*

If you don’t see /dev/ttyS* present, then you may need a driver for that card.

If its a PCI-based serial card, then have a look for it amongst the results from

/sbin/lspci -nnk

Post the chipset details for this card if necessary.

Using the dmesg |grep ttyS* all seems OK I see ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 irq 4 so it seems OK.
So it is working then?
Thank you

This will show which user/group owns /dev/ttyS0

ls -l /dev/ttyS0

You may find you need to add the relevant user to the correct group before you can access with apps running as user.

Using the **ls -l /dev/ttyS0 **command I get l root uucp 4, 64 2009-4-14 03:16 /dev/ttyS0 I assume that I the user does not have use of the serial port. I have given the command ln -s /dev/ttyS0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1 Is there another command I need to enter.
Thank you

I checked the /.wine folder and everything seems to be in place.

Using the ls -l /dev/ttyS0 command I get l root uucp 4, 64 2009-4-14 03:16 /dev/ttyS0 I assume that I the user does not have use of the serial port.

Add the user to the uucp group via YaST>>Security and Users>>User and Group Management>>…

I have given the command ln -s /dev/ttyS0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1 Is there another command I need to enter.

Is it a windows app you’re trying to use with the serial port?

Yes, it is the Windows application that I want to use the serial port.

Now the only group I have is user . Do I add a new group with a name e.g., wine_use with members uucp or do I make new group uucp with member uucp.
Thank you

Now the only group I have is user . Do I add a new group with a name e.g., wine_use with members uucp or do I make new group uucp with member uucp.
Thank you

You’re getting confused. I meant add the user to the’uucp’ group. From a terminal prompt, become root with ‘su -’, and enter root password when prompted. Then if your user is called ‘joe’ for example, you would type

usermod -A uucp joe

Alternatively, from the YaST utility, you will see a list of users (at least one user account anyway). When you select the user, and ‘Edit’, you will see a ‘Details’ folder. Click on the required group from the list available. Then click ‘Ok’ to accept changes.

BTW, you will need to log out and back in for the changes to take effect.

I used the Yast utility to add me to the uucp group. Now I don’t get error message from the application that it can’t open the serial port. But I can’t get any data from my device (it works in Windows version). Do you suppose I need to configure the serial port card. I have set the parameters in the application.

Yes, you may need to configure with setserial. This will tell you how ttyS0 is currently configured

setserial -g /dev/ttyS0

Refer man setserial for config options.

Another good way to test the data coming from your serial device, may be to use minicom to capture it first. When you are happy with this, then see if the wine app is ok with it.

A couple of potential useful serial port test links:

How To Check and Use Serial Ports Under Linux

Testing Serial Ports in Linux | Debian Ubuntu Linux Solutions Blog

deano, you are so patient. Everything checks out. The port address is correct and irq is correct. But I still can’t pass data. Do you suppose I need to add something else to a group like maybe wine or winsdr.
Thank you

  1. Lets have a look at
ls -l ~/.wine/dosdevices
  1. Did you try minicom connectivity to check the serial port config/data from the device (assuming its possible for this device)?

The ls -l ~/.wine/dosdevices looks OK I see /dev/ttyS0 so that should be OK. I checked for baud rate and it is set to 57600 as I set the application item. I can’t get minicom, I tried to load it and I can’t find my CD. I’m usually good at keeping my disks in order, but…

I checked for baud rate and it is set to 57600 as I set the application item.

Maybe its a handshaking or parity issue? What kind of device is it as a matter of interest?

If you have internet connectivity, install the minicom package via zypper:

zypper in minicom

I’m sure the added serial card needed a driver installed. The first card had a CD but Linux couldn’t read it. I tried another card, Linux could read the CD, but there was no driver available. Next I purchased a USB to serial converter and this works fine. Now I’m able to read data stream with no problem. Thank you for all the assistance, it is much appreciated.

I’m sure the added serial card needed a driver installed. The first card had a CD but Linux couldn’t read it. I tried another card, Linux could read the CD, but there was no driver available. Next I purchased a USB to serial converter and this works fine. Now I’m able to read data stream with no problem. Thank you for all the assistance, it is much appreciated.

Glad you’ve got it sorted. I use a usb to serial device (uses the pl2303 driver) for my work configuring swtiches and routers occasionally. It works very well. (I wondered and mentioned about whether a proprietary driver may have been required, but as you had /dev/ttyS0 present I didn’t pursue it further). Anyway, at least you have gained some good serial interface troubleshooting skills now. :slight_smile:

Hi
Hopefully you two have updated the HCL to include your converters?? :wink:

Done :slight_smile:

HCL:Gadgets - openSUSE