*BSD News Article 28580


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From: stark!gene@newsserv.cs.sunysb.edu (Gene Stark)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: help: FreeBSD serial ports hang
Date: 22 Mar 94 07:08:19
Organization: Gene Stark's home system
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <STARK!GENE.94Mar22070819@stark.uucp>
References: <ron.764136167@wyvern.wyvern.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: home.stark.cs.sunysb.edu
In-reply-to: ron@infi.net's message of Sun, 20 Mar 1994 04:02:47 GMT

In article <ron.764136167@wyvern.wyvern.com> ron@infi.net (Ron Steele) writes:

   I can't get my serial lines working with FreeBSD.  When trying to open
   a tty the program (kermit, cu, or a simple C program) just
   hangs.  Oddly, that dt modem light does light, and goes out after ^c.
   A ^c results in an "interrupted system call" error.  The system is a 
   486/25DX.  The uart is a 16550af.

There *is* a problem with the FreeBSD 1.1-BETA serial port driver,
which causes hanging under some circumstances using some programs like
PPP and UUCP (but not Kermit).  Some of the FreeBSD serial port driver
wizards are working on it, and my impression is that the cause of the
problem is known.

However, *your* problem sounds to me like you need a set of properly
jumpered cables.  It sounds like you are using cheap cables that do not
jumper DCD.  The serial port drivers in 1.1-BETA are such that opens
to a port will block waiting for carrier.  A workaround is to do
"stty clocal" on the port.  This will inhibit the wait for carrier.

My advice, though, is to get proper cables.

							- Gene Stark
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