Knowledgebase

Issue:

PCI-FAST installation for Linux kernel 2.4.x

Solution:

The PCI-FAST card uses the standard serial drivers included in the 2.4.x kernels so no patches will be required.

Kernel options to be enabled
Character Devices
Extended dumb serial driver options
Support more than 4 serial ports
Support for sharing serial interrupts
Support special multiport boards

In most Linux distributions these options may be enabled by default.

The server will auto-detect the card.

To verify detection check /var/log/dmesg for the following messages as the example below:

Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS1 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:14.2
ttyS4 at port 0x1000 (irq = 11) is a ST16654
ttyS5 at port 0x1008 (irq = 11) is a ST16654
ttyS6 at port 0x1010 (irq = 11) is a ST16654
ttyS7 at port 0x1018 (irq = 11) is a ST16654

In the above example the PCI-FAST 4 card was detected and allocated IRQ 11, the card will map ttySn to ttySn (the above example shows ttyS4 to ttyS7).

/proc/pci will list the card similar to the below example:

  Bus  0, device  13, function  0:
    Serial controller: PLX Technology, Inc. PCI <-> IOBus Bridge (rev 1).
      IRQ 11.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x40a00000 [0x40a0007f].
      I/O at 0x1080 [0x10ff].
      I/O at 0x1000 [0x101f].

the physical ports are labeled 1 thru X starting with the port furthest from the main board.
therefore ttyS4 will map to the 1 st physical port etc.