Re: 16 bit ISA serial card on Solaris 9 x86

From: synospam (syn_NOSPAM_uw_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 01/31/04 

Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 19:30:08 -0800

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

> [copied to alt.solaris.x86 for info]
>
> In article <bvdon9$quvkl$2@id-222939.news.uni-berlin.de>,
> synospam <syn_NOSPAM_uw@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I want to add more serial (COM) ports to my Solaris 9 x86 server. So
>>what I did is that I have bought a PCI serial card with 2 extra COM
>>ports. This didn't work so I asked in comp.unix.solaris and someone told
>
>
> someone = me :-)
>
>
>>me it's normal that it doesn't work because it's a PCI card and PCI
>>serial cards are not supported. I was told that old 16-bit serial cards
>>should work. So off I went to buy me a 16-bit ISA serial card and
>>plugged it in. Now I also have the impression it doesn't work. I don't
>>see any new devices in /dev/cua for example still only /dev/cua/a and
>>/dev/cua/b is there but not "c" and "d".
>
>
> OK. There is some setting up to do. I am assuming your ISA card is
> not plug-n-play (it doesn't say so on the web page, and I don't think
> I've ever seen an ISA-bus serial port card which is).
>
> Patch the port i/o addresses to COM3 and COM4 (3e8 and 2e8) on the card.
> You will need to choose a pair of IRQ values which are not being used
> by any other ISA devices. If there are devices configured on the
> motherboard which you aren't using such as parallel ports, IR ports,
> USB, etc, then you could disable these in the BIOS in order to reuse
> their IRQ's. IR ports in particular might also be using the COM3 i/o
> address. If the card supports sharing IRQs, you can set COM3 and COM4
> to be the same IRQ (Solaris supports this), but you can't normally share
> between different ISA cards. Patch the IRQ(s) appropriately on the card.
>
> You will now need to go into your PC BIOS setup and somewhere there
> will be a menu where you can setup IRQ values used by ISA bus cards
> which the BIOS must not allocate to PCI devices. This might be in a
> section dealing with PCI plug-n-play setup. Add the IRQ value(s)
> to this list so the BIOS won't assign them to PCI devices.
>
> Now start booting Solaris. At the prompt to hit escape within 5 seconds
> if there are any hardware changes, hit escape. This takes you in to
> the DCA (Device Configuration Assistant).
> Hit F2 to do a device scan. You will see a list of devices found.
> You will probably see two ISA serial ports on your motherboard, but
> not the two you just added (unless the card supports Plug-n-play).
>
> You now have to tell the DCA about the two new serial ports.
> Hit F4 [device tasks], select View/Edit devices, and F2 [Continue].
> Now hit F3 [add device] and select Serial Port, and F2 [Continue].
> Select Port and hit F2 and then type in 3e8-3ef, and F2 [Continue].
> Select IRQ and hit F2 and then type in the IRQ you chose for COM3.
> If you are using the same IRQ for COM3 and COM4, for example 5, the
> append an 's', e.g. 5s
> Hit F2 [Continue] and then F4 [add] to add the device.
> Repeat this for COM4, using 2e8-2ef instead.
> You should see two more ISA serial ports in the device list.
> Use F2 [continue] to go on the the list of bootable devices (your
> normal boot device should already be marked with an X) and then
> F2 [continue] again to boot Solaris kernel.
> At the (b) boot or (i) interpretor prompt, type "b -r" to do a
> reconfiguration boot, and all being well, you should end up with
> /dev/cua/c and /dev/cua/d.

Ahhh finally it now works !!! First I had problems because the card was
on IRQ 9 for COM4, Solaris wouldn't boot anymore, just hangs after the
kernel version line. So then what I did is deactivated the parallel port
and changed COM4 on the serial card to use IRQ 7. With IRQ 7 it works
well. I've now got /dev/cua/a,b,c,d ! Btw: this card has jumpers to
configure it's IO and IRQ setings. I would like to thank you Anderew for
your detailed explanations they were very helpfull !!

Thanks again !

Regards

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