Serial Card (Syba)
| Version | Status | Date Updated | Updated By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 710 | Unknown | N/A | N/A |
| 810 | applies | 10 Oct 2011 | twodogs |
| 1004 | Unknown | N/A | N/A |
| 1204 | Unknown | N/A | N/A |
| 1404 | Unknown | N/A | N/A |
| Usage Information | |||
This tutorial covers how to install the Syba SY-PCI15001 expansion card. This costs about $35, has 6 serial ports, and uses the MOSCHIP MCS9865 chip. Moschip doesn't have a stellar record with Linux, but the drivers have been recently updated and the price is right. Not exactly plug/play, but it shouldn't take too long to install by following this tutorial.
Overview
The Syba card ships with out of date drivers, so we'll use the latest from Moschip drivers. Following the instructions will result in 2 working ports that LinuxMCE can't recognize (because they're ttyD instead of ttyS). The remaining 4 ports ttyS will be recognized, but they won't work with LMCE because the standard driver configuration is wrong (need to have hardware flow control enabled). Also, grub only sets up 4 ports, two of which are typically allotted to the motherboard. So, here is what to do...
- edit grub configuration to allow 8 ports
- edit the Moschip driver file to permit hardware flow control before compiling
- compile the driver
- modify the LMCE script "ListSerialPorts.sh" to recognize the ttyD ports
Installation
Physically install the card. The two ports on the card are the mcs9865-isa ports that show up as ttyD. The remaining 4 ttyS ports are on expansion brackets with short cables. Boot LMCE and go to the KDE desktop. Download the driver from Moschip and extract the compressed file.
http://www.asix.com.tw/products.php?op=pItemdetail&PItemID=125;74;111&PLine=74
Edit Grub
Bring up a terminal and open the text editor with root permissions "sudo kate" Edit "/boot/grub/menu.lst" to add "8250.nr_uarts=8" at the end of the generic kernel line as shown below.
Edit Moschip driver file
edit the downloaded file "mcs9865.c" for each line that says ".en_flow_control= 0," change the "0" to a "1" using the "find and replace" feature in Kate is the easiest way to do this.
