Re: [hylafax-users] 2.6 kernel and Multiport boards (MainPine)

[Robert <rns@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you Andrew and Lee.

Regards,
Robert Silvia
DEXIS, LLC
www.dexray.com

andrew rinaldi wrote:
> Hi Robert.
>
> I don't have the authority to give you an 'official statement' but I can
> give you some background information.
>
> The Agere/Lucent Venus chipset has a bug which can result in a interrupt
> register read failure.  This condition is extremely rare but effects boards
> from Multitech, Perle, Zoom and other Venus based products that we have
> tested.  As a company we focus on providing reliable fax solutions and
> therefore implemented a workaround in our hardware for the interrupt
> register read bug - this is the multiport feature.  Kernels prior to 2.6 had
> native support for this feature.  However, major changes in the Linux serial
> driver removed this from 2.6 and it can therefore no longer be used.  The
> good news is that these changes also modified the behaviour of the interrupt
> service routine and we see the bug very rarely today.  Bottom line, you can
> ignore this feature if you are running 2.6 kernels.
>
> I will get the website updated with this information to save confusion in
> the future.... The only excuse that I can offer is that we have a new
> website in development and they are focused on that more than updating the
> current one.
>
> You may also like to know that we are about to extend our sideband features
> to Linux.  This will allow us to automatically recover when the modems
> 'Wedge' following a Venus Firmware/DSP crash (unfortunately, despite many
> years of effort on our part we are still unable to cure all of the Venus
> bugs).
>
> We have thousands of customers running our products in a production
> environment and I have no doubt that we have the most reliable fax hardware
> in the industry.  We regularly test fax server software which is unique in
> this industry (http://www.mainpine.com/corporate/press/2006/isvlab.php).
> We also see a lot of customers dump Brooktrout and Eicon hardware to move to
> our solutions because of the better reliability and price point
> (http://www.mainpine.com/downloads/WP-Lobar.pdf).
>
> Please let me know if I can offer you any further clarification.
>
> Regards
>
> ANDREW RINALDI
> Mainpine Ltd. Support
> USA +1 718 701 2422 | Asia/Europe +44 1225 436137 
> andrew.rinaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxx | www.mainpine.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hylafax-users-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:hylafax-users-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robert
> Sent: 10 May 2006 02:53
> To: hylafax-users@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [hylafax-users] 2.6 kernel and Multiport boards (MainPine)
>
> I've been messing around for the past several hours trying to get the
> RockForce Octo+ from Mainpine working on a 2.6 kernel.
>
> All is working well except, the multiport command comes back invalid.
>
> After 'Several' recompiles of my kernel I decided to search the group.
>
> I found a post (quoted below) by Darren Nickerson of iFax, stating basically
> in 2.6 multiport support is different, you no longer need the mutliport
> statement...
> it should just work. He also mentioned MainPain would make a official
> statement (Which I do not see on their site) is regards to a recommended
> installation procedure.
>
> What I would like to know is:
>
> Is anyone running this setup in a production environment?
> If so what are your experiences, is it stable?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Robert Silvia
> DEXIS, LLC
> www.dexray.com
>
>
>
> -- Quote Mentioned above --
>
>
> "Lee Howard" <fax... 
> <http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?msg=dfdc066ed46d2b8f&_done=/group/fa
> .hylafax/browse_thread/thread/a6707a5a079e3009/dfdc066ed46d2b8f%3Fq%3Dmultip
> ort%26rnum%3D1>@howardsilvan.com>: 
>
>
>  > Chris Giesel wrote:
>
>  >>All:
>
>  >>I am having difficulty installing my mainpine rockforce octo+ and
>   
> > > configuring Fedora kernel 2.6.5-1.358.i386 serial ports/ttyS latches. I
> > > have  >>the following information:
> > >       
>
>  >>We have recompiled the fedora core 2 kernel with the options for
> *multiport*
>  >>serial devices enabled as suggested earlier.
>
>  >>We ran the setserial command:
>  >>setserial /dev/ttyS14 port 0xdc80 irq 9 autoconfig ^fourport substituting
>   
> > > apropriate io addresses and ttyS where apropriate
> > >       
>
>  >>we are still getting "Cannot get *multiport* config: Invalid argument"
> after  >>running  setserial /dev/ttyS14 set_multiport port1 0xdce0 mask1
> 0xFF
>  >>match1
>  >>00x00
>
>  > You may have to recompile your kernel with the *multiport* options
> enabled.
>
> Chris/Lee,
>
> In kernel-2.4, the *multiport* 'latch' is required. Most major distros
> default kernels are compiled with *multiport* support, and so the
> set_multiport line would execute properly (at least when there's no ioport
> interrupts) and a kernel recompile would not be required.
>
> This has completely changed in kernel-2.6 ... they've reworked the
> *multiport*
> serial support quite a bit.
>
> We've been working with Mainpine to help them develop a recommended
> configuration procedure for kernel-2.6, and we each have 2.6-based fedora's
> in our labs in testing. So far, it seems like you can run all the setserial
> commands _except_ for the *multiport* latch (which is not relevant to
> kernel-2.6 and as far as we can tell will never work) and it should 'just
> work'.
>
> Look for an update on Mainpine's website once they've finalized their
> official recommendations.
>
> -Darren
>
> --
> Darren Nickerson
> Senior Sales & Support Engineer
> iFAX Solutions, Inc. www.ifax.com <http://www.ifax.com> darren.nicker... 
> <http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?msg=dfdc066ed46d2b8f&_done=/group/fa
> .hylafax/browse_thread/thread/a6707a5a079e3009/dfdc066ed46d2b8f%3Fq%3Dmultip
> ort%26rnum%3D1>@ifax.com 
>
> +1.215.438.4638 x8106
> +1.215.243.8335 (fax)
>
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