kern/134878: [puc] [patch] Add support for Oxford OXPCIe954 and OXPCIe958 PCI Express chips

[Bill Lortz]

The following reply was made to PR kern/134878; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Bill Lortz" <blortz at pacbell.net>
To: "'David Wood'" <david at wood2.org.uk>
Cc: <bug-followup at FreeBSD.org>
Subject: RE: kern/134878: [puc] [patch] Add support for Oxford OXPCIe954 and OXPCIe958 PCI Express chips
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:57:39 -0800

 David:
 
 I'm glad to hear that I wasn't way off base.
 
 To answer your questions:
 
 
 
 > Most importantly, does the serial port work with your amended patch?
 
 > Does /var/run/dmesg.boot contain a line:
 > puc0: 1 UARTs detected
 
 Yes, the serial port works great.  I'm using with NTPD and have a GPS PPS
 signal from a Garmin 18x LVC GPS on pin 1 (DSR) along with TX/RX and GND on
 the appropriate pins.  NTPD and the kernel are seeing the PPS signal and
 receiving a NMEA data just fine.   I don't know if NTPD tries to transmit
 anything though, so it is possible the transmit function isn't working and I
 don't know it.   If you'd like me to test that specifically, I can probably
 find something else to plug in besides the GPS and try it out - even a null
 modem to another PC might work.
 
 The relevant lines in dmesg.boot are: 
 
 pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib2
 pci3: <simple comms, parallel port> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)puc0:
 <Oxford Semiconductor OXPCIe952 UARTs (function 1)> mem
 0xd8200000-0xd8203fff,0xd8600000-0xd87fffff,0xd8400000-0xd85fffff irq 16 at
 device 0.3 on pci3
 puc0: 1 UARTs detected
 puc0: [FILTER]
 uart2: <16950 or compatible> on puc0
 
 I do remember seeing some sort of weird message when I did the verbose boot
 logging.   Something about assigning a memory block and some conflict with
 an entry (sorry about being so vague).   If you do have time to come up with
 an updated patch, I'll try both unknowns: "transmitting" and to get the
 message from the verbose boot log for you.
 
 The device names in /dev that it created didn't match anything I saw online,
 but I took a chance and used them in NTPD which worked.  The names it
 created were: /dev/cuau2 /dev/cuau2.init /dev/cuau2.lock /dev/ttyu2
 /dev/ttyu2.init /dev/ttyu2.lock
 I used the /dev/cuau2 for NTPD by using some symbolic links.
 
 
 
 >You did the right thing by replying to me and cc'ing 
 >bug-followup at FreeBSD.org
 
 >The only suggestion I have is to send plain text emails; GNATS makes a 
 >bit of a mess of HTML as you can see at
 >http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=134878
 
 Yes.   I actually searched on google by the patch id and some other words
 and found the "Current FreeBSD problem reports" page.   I clicked on the
 followup link and it wound up launching Microsoft Outlook with the correct
 "to:" and "cc:" elements.    I didn't realize that it was sending HTML also
 until (with horror) I saw my reply on that case with all the HTML garbage
 afterwards.   On this message, Outlook is claiming to send Plain Text.
 We'll see... :)
 
 
 >I may also have a go at the parallel port and legacy UART functions. 
 >Could you test the parallel port if I attempt to support it, or have you 
 >not got any parallel devices? I suspect that most people have left 
 >parallel port devices behind by now - printers have used USB for many 
 >years.
 
 Sure.   I'll have to open the computer case and temporarily attach the
 parallel port cable to the card.   I'll probably have to pick up the right
 kind of adapter cable, but I think that I have a couple of printers around
 that can accept parallel.   If not at home, I do at work.
 
 
 >I'm also planning to revisit the patch to attempt to add support for 
 >MSI-X on these Oxford UARTs, though that requires changing some of the 
 >main puc code, not just pucdata.c. I want to use my OXPCIe954 based card 
 >for NTP master clocks - using MSI-X offers the prospect of reducing 
 >interrupt latency and jitter. It's just a matter of finding the 
 >necessary time.
 
 That sounds like something that would help my little NTPD/GPS clock setup.
 Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.   
 
 
 
 Bill