[aclug-L] Serial port problems

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to get PPP to work on a P120 system and am having nothing but
problems.  The problem is with the serial port(s).

I have enabled both serial ports in the BIOS.  I plug the modem into the
port, and run minicom.  The modem will not respond.  When I hit the "reset"
button on the modem (it's a fancy radio modem deal) to bring up the config
menu, it shows me the menu, but does not respond to anything I type. 
SOOO... it seems that the serial ports are working one direction only--the
RECIEVE direction.

I've tried both serial ports on the motherboard and I've tried an ISA serial
card.  They're all 16550A UARTs, and they are all reported properly by
setserial as such, and with proper IRQs and all.

The only other hardware in the system is the network card (a 3c905 PCI card)
and video card (have used both an ISA and a PCI card).

I've tried different serial cables and have tried two different modems (both
the radio modem and a USR Courier--both of them work fine on other
machines).

So the problem seems to be either software related or related to another
as-of-yet-unidentified piece of hardware.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Tomorrow I plan to try a DOS terminal program to see if that works (try to
eliminate the possiblity of software problems in Linux).  Failing that I'll
try a different motherboard--perhaps something on the motherboard or in the
BIOS is causing problems (???).

I'm using Linux kernel 2.2.13 on the system currently--I compiled it this
evening.  There's nothing I might have left out of the kernel that might
have caused this is there?  I've verified that serial support IS in the
kernel--were it not in the kernel, setserial wouldn't even work, etc.

Anyway... time for me to sleep now.

P.S. Come to think of it, I've had this computer working before with PPP...
So I don't think the motherboard is to blame.  I'll try removing the NIC
tommorow, too...


-- 
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  Jonathan Hall  *  jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx  *  PGP public key available
 Systems Admin, Future Internet Services; Goessel, KS * (316) 367-2487
         http://www.futureks.net  *  PGP Key ID: FE 00 FD 51
                  -=  Running Debian GNU/Linux  =-
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