[time-nuts] More serial ports in NanoBSD

[Mike Cook]

> Le 12 août 2015 à 22:26, Willy Willemse <Willy.Willemse at telenet.be> a écrit :
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> 
> 
> I have a got a NanoBSD image with NTPns from Jason Rabel because I am a
> complete noob in FreeBSD, I tried to build an image but there were so many
> pitfalls for me that I asked Jason for a copy of his image.
> 
> 
> 
> It works fine on my soekris NET4501, but I want also use the time signal
> from the DCF-77 transmitter not just the oncore signal.
> 
> 
> 
> Therefore I bought an extra mini-PCI serial card
> (http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/320524491709?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
> <http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/320524491709?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPag
> eName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT> &ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT )
> 
> 
> 
> But the image doesn't support more than two serial ports. There is a way to
> add extra serial ports but this means that you have to build a new image.

  I find that a restriction on number hard to believe. 
The uart driver supports 16950s. I actually installed and tested an Oxford PCI card in one of my 4801s and was able to use them OK.
I can’t find my documentation of that test. It was back in 2011. But IIRC…...
Do your boot messages detect the hardware?  You should see multiple «uartx » , 0 and 1 are the basic devices. Any others will be your PCI 
based ports.
If they are seen, record the PORT and IRQ associated. 
In that case, go look at /boot/device.hints. See if you only uart.0 uart.1 then that may be your issue. 
Add entries for the others.
ex.
hint.uart.2.at="isa"
hint.uart.2.disabled="1"
hint.uart.2.port="0x3E8"
hint.uart.2.irq="5"
hint.uart.3.at="isa"
hint.uart.3.disabled="1"
hint.uart.3.port="0x2E8"
hint.uart.3.irq="9"

reboot
Now, if you are lucky , when you look in /dev, you should see the tty and cua devices .

Hope that helps.

> And that is what I can't do in this moment. The closest I found from
> education in this neighborhood is a Linux course which I now follow.
> 
> 
> 
> My question is, if somebody from the Time-Nuts society have an image laying
> around which support a third and a fourth serial port? 
> 
> 
> 
> Or even better show me the way to update my existing image with the extra
> ports.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> Willy
> 
> 
> 
> ---
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