Serial card driver support for the PCI-FAST is already included as part of the current standard Linux kernel 2.2.18 and above. The PCI-Fast card is auto-detected and each serial port is assigned a tty device name starting as ttySx as an extension of the standard COM ports in your system. For example, ttyS3, ttyS4, ttyS5, ttyS6, and son on... Note that S is in upper case.
Known problem and solution
Problem: Serial port displays scattered text
Solution: Change the UART type from 16654 to 16650A using the "setserial" command.
Instructions: View the /var/log/messages file and take note of "port address" and the "IRQ" for each serial port of the PCI-Fast card.
For example, suppose the first serial port is device ttyS3 and was assigned a port address of 0x2400 and irq 11. Based on this information you would enter the setserial command as shown in the example below.
setserial /dev/ttyS3 uart 16550A port 0x2400 irq 11 baud_base 460800 spd_normal skip_test
You will require a setserial entry for each serial port of the PCI-Fast card. It is advisable to enter all the setserial entries into the 'rc.local' file in /etc/rc.d directory so that they are executed on boot up.
Other useful information:
If login processes are required, add entries in the /etc/inittab file as shown in the example below.
S3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS3 wy60
S4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS4 wy60
S5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS5 wy60
S6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS6 wy60
.
Note: For detailed information on 'agetty', refer to the 'man' page on your Linux server.
ie., man agetty