1* NOTE - This is an unmaintained driver. Lantronix, which bought Stallion 2technologies, is not active in driver maintenance, and they have no information 3on when or if they will have a 2.6 driver. 4 5James Nelson <james4765@gmail.com> - 12-12-2004 6 7Stallion Multiport Serial Driver Readme 8--------------------------------------- 9 10Copyright (C) 1994-1999, Stallion Technologies. 11 12Version: 5.5.1 13Date: 28MAR99 14 15 16 171. INTRODUCTION 18 19There are two drivers that work with the different families of Stallion 20multiport serial boards. One is for the Stallion smart boards - that is 21EasyIO, EasyConnection 8/32 and EasyConnection 8/64-PCI, the other for 22the true Stallion intelligent multiport boards - EasyConnection 8/64 23(ISA, EISA, MCA), EasyConnection/RA-PCI, ONboard and Brumby. 24 25If you are using any of the Stallion intelligent multiport boards (Brumby, 26ONboard, EasyConnection 8/64 (ISA, EISA, MCA), EasyConnection/RA-PCI) with 27Linux you will need to get the driver utility package. This contains a 28firmware loader and the firmware images necessary to make the devices operate. 29 30The Stallion Technologies ftp site, ftp.stallion.com, will always have 31the latest version of the driver utility package. 32 33ftp://ftp.stallion.com/drivers/ata5/Linux/ata-linux-550.tar.gz 34 35As of the printing of this document the latest version of the driver 36utility package is 5.5.0. If a later version is now available then you 37should use the latest version. 38 39If you are using the EasyIO, EasyConnection 8/32 or EasyConnection 8/64-PCI 40boards then you don't need this package, although it does have a serial stats 41display program. 42 43If you require DIP switch settings, EISA or MCA configuration files, or any 44other information related to Stallion boards then have a look at Stallion's 45web pages at http://www.stallion.com. 46 47 48 492. INSTALLATION 50 51The drivers can be used as loadable modules or compiled into the kernel. 52You can choose which when doing a "config" on the kernel. 53 54All ISA, EISA and MCA boards that you want to use need to be configured into 55the driver(s). All PCI boards will be automatically detected when you load 56the driver - so they do not need to be entered into the driver(s) 57configuration structure. Note that kernel PCI support is required to use PCI 58boards. 59 60There are two methods of configuring ISA, EISA and MCA boards into the drivers. 61If using the driver as a loadable module then the simplest method is to pass 62the driver configuration as module arguments. The other method is to modify 63the driver source to add configuration lines for each board in use. 64 65If you have pre-built Stallion driver modules then the module argument 66configuration method should be used. A lot of Linux distributions come with 67pre-built driver modules in /lib/modules/X.Y.Z/misc for the kernel in use. 68That makes things pretty simple to get going. 69 70 712.1 MODULE DRIVER CONFIGURATION: 72 73The simplest configuration for modules is to use the module load arguments 74to configure any ISA, EISA or MCA boards. PCI boards are automatically 75detected, so do not need any additional configuration at all. 76 77If using EasyIO, EasyConnection 8/32 ISA or MCA, or EasyConnection 8/63-PCI 78boards then use the "stallion" driver module, Otherwise if you are using 79an EasyConnection 8/64 ISA, EISA or MCA, EasyConnection/RA-PCI, ONboard, 80Brumby or original Stallion board then use the "istallion" driver module. 81 82Typically to load up the smart board driver use: 83 84 modprobe stallion 85 86This will load the EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 driver. It will output a 87message to say that it loaded and print the driver version number. It will 88also print out whether it found the configured boards or not. These messages 89may not appear on the console, but typically are always logged to 90/var/adm/messages or /var/log/syslog files - depending on how the klogd and 91syslogd daemons are setup on your system. 92 93To load the intelligent board driver use: 94 95 modprobe istallion 96 97It will output similar messages to the smart board driver. 98 99If not using an auto-detectable board type (that is a PCI board) then you 100will also need to supply command line arguments to the modprobe command 101when loading the driver. The general form of the configuration argument is 102 103 board?=<name>[,<ioaddr>[,<addr>][,<irq>]] 104 105where: 106 107 board? -- specifies the arbitrary board number of this board, 108 can be in the range 0 to 3. 109 110 name -- textual name of this board. The board name is the common 111 board name, or any "shortened" version of that. The board 112 type number may also be used here. 113 114 ioaddr -- specifies the I/O address of this board. This argument is 115 optional, but should generally be specified. 116 117 addr -- optional second address argument. Some board types require 118 a second I/O address, some require a memory address. The 119 exact meaning of this argument depends on the board type. 120 121 irq -- optional IRQ line used by this board. 122 123Up to 4 board configuration arguments can be specified on the load line. 124Here is some examples: 125 126 modprobe stallion board0=easyio,0x2a0,5 127 128This configures an EasyIO board as board 0 at I/O address 0x2a0 and IRQ 5. 129 130 modprobe istallion board3=ec8/64,0x2c0,0xcc000 131 132This configures an EasyConnection 8/64 ISA as board 3 at I/O address 0x2c0 at 133memory address 0xcc000. 134 135 modprobe stallion board1=ec8/32-at,0x2a0,0x280,10 136 137This configures an EasyConnection 8/32 ISA board at primary I/O address 0x2a0, 138secondary address 0x280 and IRQ 10. 139 140You will probably want to enter this module load and configuration information 141into your system startup scripts so that the drivers are loaded and configured 142on each system boot. Typically the start up script would be something like 143/etc/modprobe.conf. 144 145 1462.2 STATIC DRIVER CONFIGURATION: 147 148For static driver configuration you need to modify the driver source code. 149Entering ISA, EISA and MCA boards into the driver(s) configuration structure 150involves editing the driver(s) source file. It's pretty easy if you follow 151the instructions below. Both drivers can support up to 4 boards. The smart 152card driver (the stallion.c driver) supports any combination of EasyIO and 153EasyConnection 8/32 boards (up to a total of 4). The intelligent driver 154supports any combination of ONboards, Brumbys, Stallions and EasyConnection 1558/64 (ISA and EISA) boards (up to a total of 4). 156 157To set up the driver(s) for the boards that you want to use you need to 158edit the appropriate driver file and add configuration entries. 159 160If using EasyIO or EasyConnection 8/32 ISA or MCA boards, 161 In drivers/char/stallion.c: 162 - find the definition of the stl_brdconf array (of structures) 163 near the top of the file 164 - modify this to match the boards you are going to install 165 (the comments before this structure should help) 166 - save and exit 167 168If using ONboard, Brumby, Stallion or EasyConnection 8/64 (ISA or EISA) 169boards, 170 In drivers/char/istallion.c: 171 - find the definition of the stli_brdconf array (of structures) 172 near the top of the file 173 - modify this to match the boards you are going to install 174 (the comments before this structure should help) 175 - save and exit 176 177Once you have set up the board configurations then you are ready to build 178the kernel or modules. 179 180When the new kernel is booted, or the loadable module loaded then the 181driver will emit some kernel trace messages about whether the configured 182boards were detected or not. Depending on how your system logger is set 183up these may come out on the console, or just be logged to 184/var/adm/messages or /var/log/syslog. You should check the messages to 185confirm that all is well. 186 187 1882.3 SHARING INTERRUPTS 189 190It is possible to share interrupts between multiple EasyIO and 191EasyConnection 8/32 boards in an EISA system. To do this you must be using 192static driver configuration, modifying the driver source code to add driver 193configuration. Then a couple of extra things are required: 194 1951. When entering the board resources into the stallion.c file you need to 196 mark the boards as using level triggered interrupts. Do this by replacing 197 the "0" entry at field position 6 (the last field) in the board 198 configuration structure with a "1". (This is the structure that defines 199 the board type, I/O locations, etc. for each board). All boards that are 200 sharing an interrupt must be set this way, and each board should have the 201 same interrupt number specified here as well. Now build the module or 202 kernel as you would normally. 203 2042. When physically installing the boards into the system you must enter 205 the system EISA configuration utility. You will need to install the EISA 206 configuration files for *all* the EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 boards 207 that are sharing interrupts. The Stallion EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 208 EISA configuration files required are supplied by Stallion Technologies 209 on the EASY Utilities floppy diskette (usually supplied in the box with 210 the board when purchased. If not, you can pick it up from Stallion's FTP 211 site, ftp.stallion.com). You will need to edit the board resources to 212 choose level triggered interrupts, and make sure to set each board's 213 interrupt to the same IRQ number. 214 215You must complete both the above steps for this to work. When you reboot 216or load the driver your EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 boards will be 217sharing interrupts. 218 219 2202.4 USING HIGH SHARED MEMORY 221 222The EasyConnection 8/64-EI, ONboard and Stallion boards are capable of 223using shared memory addresses above the usual 640K - 1Mb range. The ONboard 224ISA and the Stallion boards can be programmed to use memory addresses up to 22516Mb (the ISA bus addressing limit), and the EasyConnection 8/64-EI and 226ONboard/E can be programmed for memory addresses up to 4Gb (the EISA bus 227addressing limit). 228 229The higher than 1Mb memory addresses are fully supported by this driver. 230Just enter the address as you normally would for a lower than 1Mb address 231(in the driver's board configuration structure). 232 233 234 2352.5 TROUBLE SHOOTING 236 237If a board is not found by the driver but is actually in the system then the 238most likely problem is that the I/O address is wrong. Change the module load 239argument for the loadable module form. Or change it in the driver stallion.c 240or istallion.c configuration structure and rebuild the kernel or modules, or 241change it on the board. 242 243On EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 boards the IRQ is software programmable, so 244if there is a conflict you may need to change the IRQ used for a board. There 245are no interrupts to worry about for ONboard, Brumby or EasyConnection 8/64 246(ISA, EISA and MCA) boards. The memory region on EasyConnection 8/64 and 247ONboard boards is software programmable, but not on the Brumby boards. 248 249 250 2513. USING THE DRIVERS 252 2533.1 INTELLIGENT DRIVER OPERATION 254 255The intelligent boards also need to have their "firmware" code downloaded 256to them. This is done via a user level application supplied in the driver 257utility package called "stlload". Compile this program wherever you dropped 258the package files, by typing "make". In its simplest form you can then type 259 260 ./stlload -i cdk.sys 261 262in this directory and that will download board 0 (assuming board 0 is an 263EasyConnection 8/64 or EasyConnection/RA board). To download to an 264ONboard, Brumby or Stallion do: 265 266 ./stlload -i 2681.sys 267 268Normally you would want all boards to be downloaded as part of the standard 269system startup. To achieve this, add one of the lines above into the 270/etc/rc.d/rc.S or /etc/rc.d/rc.serial file. To download each board just add 271the "-b <brd-number>" option to the line. You will need to download code for 272every board. You should probably move the stlload program into a system 273directory, such as /usr/sbin. Also, the default location of the cdk.sys image 274file in the stlload down-loader is /usr/lib/stallion. Create that directory 275and put the cdk.sys and 2681.sys files in it. (It's a convenient place to put 276them anyway). As an example your /etc/rc.d/rc.S file might have the 277following lines added to it (if you had 3 boards): 278 279 /usr/sbin/stlload -b 0 -i /usr/lib/stallion/cdk.sys 280 /usr/sbin/stlload -b 1 -i /usr/lib/stallion/2681.sys 281 /usr/sbin/stlload -b 2 -i /usr/lib/stallion/2681.sys 282 283The image files cdk.sys and 2681.sys are specific to the board types. The 284cdk.sys will only function correctly on an EasyConnection 8/64 board. Similarly 285the 2681.sys image fill only operate on ONboard, Brumby and Stallion boards. 286If you load the wrong image file into a board it will fail to start up, and 287of course the ports will not be operational! 288 289If you are using the modularized version of the driver you might want to put 290the modprobe calls in the startup script as well (before the download lines 291obviously). 292 293 2943.2 USING THE SERIAL PORTS 295 296Once the driver is installed you will need to setup some device nodes to 297access the serial ports. The simplest method is to use the /dev/MAKEDEV program. 298It will automatically create device entries for Stallion boards. This will 299create the normal serial port devices as /dev/ttyE# where# is the port number 300starting from 0. A bank of 64 minor device numbers is allocated to each board, 301so the first port on the second board is port 64,etc. A set of callout type 302devices may also be created. They are created as the devices /dev/cue# where # 303is the same as for the ttyE devices. 304 305For the most part the Stallion driver tries to emulate the standard PC system 306COM ports and the standard Linux serial driver. The idea is that you should 307be able to use Stallion board ports and COM ports interchangeably without 308modifying anything but the device name. Anything that doesn't work like that 309should be considered a bug in this driver! 310 311If you look at the driver code you will notice that it is fairly closely 312based on the Linux serial driver (linux/drivers/char/serial.c). This is 313intentional, obviously this is the easiest way to emulate its behavior! 314 315Since this driver tries to emulate the standard serial ports as much as 316possible, most system utilities should work as they do for the standard 317COM ports. Most importantly "stty" works as expected and "setserial" can 318also be used (excepting the ability to auto-configure the I/O and IRQ 319addresses of boards). Higher baud rates are supported in the usual fashion 320through setserial or using the CBAUDEX extensions. Note that the EasyIO and 321EasyConnection (all types) support at least 57600 and 115200 baud. The newer 322EasyConnection XP modules and new EasyIO boards support 230400 and 460800 323baud as well. The older boards including ONboard and Brumby support a 324maximum baud rate of 38400. 325 326If you are unfamiliar with how to use serial ports, then get the Serial-HOWTO 327by Greg Hankins. It will explain everything you need to know! 328 329 330 3314. NOTES 332 333You can use both drivers at once if you have a mix of board types installed 334in a system. However to do this you will need to change the major numbers 335used by one of the drivers. Currently both drivers use major numbers 24, 25 336and 28 for their devices. Change one driver to use some other major numbers, 337and then modify the mkdevnods script to make device nodes based on those new 338major numbers. For example, you could change the istallion.c driver to use 339major numbers 60, 61 and 62. You will also need to create device nodes with 340different names for the ports, for example ttyF# and cuf#. 341 342The original Stallion board is no longer supported by Stallion Technologies. 343Although it is known to work with the istallion driver. 344 345Finding a free physical memory address range can be a problem. The older 346boards like the Stallion and ONboard need large areas (64K or even 128K), so 347they can be very difficult to get into a system. If you have 16 Mb of RAM 348then you have no choice but to put them somewhere in the 640K -> 1Mb range. 349ONboards require 64K, so typically 0xd0000 is good, or 0xe0000 on some 350systems. If you have an original Stallion board, "V4.0" or Rev.O, then you 351need a 64K memory address space, so again 0xd0000 and 0xe0000 are good. 352Older Stallion boards are a much bigger problem. They need 128K of address 353space and must be on a 128K boundary. If you don't have a VGA card then 3540xc0000 might be usable - there is really no other place you can put them 355below 1Mb. 356 357Both the ONboard and old Stallion boards can use higher memory addresses as 358well, but you must have less than 16Mb of RAM to be able to use them. Usual 359high memory addresses used include 0xec0000 and 0xf00000. 360 361The Brumby boards only require 16Kb of address space, so you can usually 362squeeze them in somewhere. Common addresses are 0xc8000, 0xcc000, or in 363the 0xd0000 range. EasyConnection 8/64 boards are even better, they only 364require 4Kb of address space, again usually 0xc8000, 0xcc000 or 0xd0000 365are good. 366 367If you are using an EasyConnection 8/64-EI or ONboard/E then usually the 3680xd0000 or 0xe0000 ranges are the best options below 1Mb. If neither of 369them can be used then the high memory support to use the really high address 370ranges is the best option. Typically the 2Gb range is convenient for them, 371and gets them well out of the way. 372 373The ports of the EasyIO-8M board do not have DCD or DTR signals. So these 374ports cannot be used as real modem devices. Generally, when using these 375ports you should only use the cueX devices. 376 377The driver utility package contains a couple of very useful programs. One 378is a serial port statistics collection and display program - very handy 379for solving serial port problems. The other is an extended option setting 380program that works with the intelligent boards. 381 382 383 3845. DISCLAIMER 385 386The information contained in this document is believed to be accurate and 387reliable. However, no responsibility is assumed by Stallion Technologies 388Pty. Ltd. for its use, nor any infringements of patents or other rights 389of third parties resulting from its use. Stallion Technologies reserves 390the right to modify the design of its products and will endeavour to change 391the information in manuals and accompanying documentation accordingly. 392 393