631 and Debian

D

dsuprina

New member
My 631 works like a champ under Windows, but communications continue to be elusive under Linux. I'm using Debian (3.0 r 5 - latest available).

After defining the device (type 188, right?) so as to enable the unit to be accessed like any other serial device...

mknod /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0
mknod /dev/ttyUSB1 c 188 1
mknod /dev/ttyUSB2 c 188 2

...and rebooting, the 631 displays its default screen content. Attempts to use test631 (downloaded fresh just a few days ago) fails to recognize the device.

looking at the dmesg log, the following statement caught my eye:
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod ....) is not claimed by any active driver.

So... does anyone have cookbook instructions as to how to enable Debian to recognize the 631? (I can continue to beat my head against the wall, but it hurts the head and is bad for the wall ;-)

BTW, I insured that USB Serial Converter Support was added when the OS was installed.

Thanx in advance -

-drs-
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C

CF Web

Administrator
There have been several reports of problems using the USB displays with Debian, although we have yet to figure out exactly where the problem lies. All indicators point to some usb or usb to serial module ("driver") issue. Our Linux test box is using Fedora 3 and has had, to date, no driver/module failures with the USB modules.

However, that being said, it sounds as though there's a module ("driver") that's not loaded correctly on your system. By default, Debian should at least be able to talk to the module. When you do an "lsmod" from a terminal, are you seeing the "ftdi_sio" and "usbserial" modules listed? When you plug in the module and do a "cat proc/usb/bus/drivers/" are you seeing the module listed as being attached to a port? What exactly is the error message when you try and run the test631 binary?
 
D

dsuprina

New member
> However, that being said, it sounds as though there's a module ("driver") that's not loaded correctly on your system. By default, Debian should at least be able to talk to the module. When you do an "lsmod" from a terminal, are you seeing the "ftdi_sio" and "usbserial" modules listed? When you plug in the module and do a "cat proc/usb/bus/drivers/" are you seeing the module listed as being attached to a port? What exactly is the error message when you try and run the test631 binary?

I'm using the 2.4 Debian kernel, and added the serial converter during the install process.

“lsmod” reports the existence of:
usb-uhci
usbcore [usbserial usbmouse usbkybd usb-uhci]

I do not see any module by the name of “ftdi_sio”.
I’ve noted that /proc/bus/usb exists, but the directory is empty.

“test631 /dev/ttyS0 115200” reports:
Serial_Init:: Success
“/dev/ttyS0” opened at “115200” baud.
Timed out waiting for a response.
Timed out waiting for a response.
Ctrl-C to exit.
Updated display, now waiting for packets

At this point the 631 is in a wait loop and the screen has not been modified.

> There have been several reports of problems using the USB displays with Debian, although we have yet to figure out exactly where the problem lies. <snip>

I guess I'm off to load Fedora iso's unless someone has blazed this trail before.
 
C

CF Web

Administrator
The FTDI USB Serial Converter Driver can be found here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=32425&release_id=101763

You're going to need to install this as the 631 module has a USB to RS232 chip onboard that is manufactured by FTDI. Therefore, you're going to need the FTDI drivers in order to get any functionality from the display.

(You might doublecheck that the driver is installed, but not loaded. I would be highly surprised if it wasn't included in the Debian distribution.)

Give this a try and let me know if you have any more success.
 
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