[ltp] IBM 600E, RH9, minicom problem

[Bert Haskins]

Quite a long time ago, I sent one of my very first Thinkpads, a 760ED
to IBM service for a dead RS-232 port.
I needed the port for programming Atmel AVRs so I had to have it fixed.
IBM quoted me a price of over $350.00 to fix it even though the machine was
still under warranty.
I declined the repair and had the machine sent back
Much later I ran into the same problem on another TP only this time
I downloaded the PS2 utility from the IBM website, ran it and found the
port disabled!.
I then used this on the first machine and it was also disabled.
Both machines were  O.K. under the F1 tests.
I enabled the port ( with PS2 ) and it was working fine when I sold the 
machine
much later.
I think that the output drivers are what is disabled, it saves a little 
tiny bit  of
power and that is important in battery life benchmarks.
..... Bert





Bill Voight wrote:

> Bert,
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.  I don't believe it is disabled.  I ran the 
> tests from the BIOS and it checked out OK.  I'm not familiar with the 
> Thinkpad BIOS (I'm mostly a Sun guy).  Other than hitting F1 at the 
> proper time and running the diags, there does not seem to be any to 
> disable the serial port.  I've downloaded the manual in pdf format and 
> looked at it with no success.
>
> I've also installed the kernel-module-thinkpad and tpctl.  Tpctl  
> reports it can't open device /dev/thinkpad.
>
> If you think of anything else, I'm listening.
>
> Bill Voight
>
> Bert Haskins wrote:
>
>> Are you certain that the serial port is not ( bios) disabled?
>> Check it with PS2
>> ...... Bert
>>
>> Bill Voight wrote:
>>
>>> Sports fans,
>>>
>>> IBM 600E, RH9, minicom serial port  Setup- /dev/ttyS0 9600 8N1, 
>>> Hardware flow control, no Software Flow Control
>>>
>>> I'm using settings identical to those I've been using on several 
>>> other RH boxes to connect to the A serial port of some U2's.  I am 
>>> using a known good null modem cable and gender bender to connect.  
>>> Works fine on the desktops, no dice on the IBM 600e.  I've run the 
>>> diags from the 600E's bios- they show everything's OK.  Have had no 
>>> luck with docs- I haven't found anything indicating there's anything 
>>> different about the serial port on a 600E.  Setserial output from 
>>> both is listed below- it's identical.  Anybody got any ideas?
>>>
>>> Here's setserial output from the desktop:
>>>
>>> /root >  setserial -av /dev/ttyS0
>>> /dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
>>>       Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
>>>       closing_wait: 3000
>>>       Flags: spd_normal skip_test
>>>
>>> Here's setserial output from the laptop:
>>>
>>> [root@ibmgeek root]# setserial -av /dev/ttyS0
>>> /dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
>>>       Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
>>>       closing_wait: 3000
>>>       Flags: spd_normal skip_test
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>