From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Sep 14 6:57: 2 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from smtp.smed.com (smtp.smed.com [12.20.51.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D41C37B422 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 06:56:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtpgate.shrmed.com (keymaster.smed.com [12.20.51.2]) by smtp.smed.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC22516473 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 09:56:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: from iesa14.shrmed.com (iesa14.shrmed.com [10.1.99.114]) by smtpgate.shrmed.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA28497 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 09:56:53 -0400 From: Joe.Warner@smed.com Received: from Deimos.smed.com (unverified) by iesa14.shrmed.com (Content Technologies SMTPRS 2.0.15) with SMTP id ; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 09:52:30 -0400 Received: by Deimos.smed.com(Lotus SMTP MTA v4.6.5 (863.2 5-20-1999)) id 8525695A.004C133D ; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 09:50:56 -0400 X-Lotus-FromDomain: SMS To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Cc: RichardLe@pcmall.com Message-Id: <8525695A.004C10AB.00@Deimos.smed.com> Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 07:53:19 -0600 Subject: /dev/cuaa0 locks my system up..Help! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Ok, I'm posting this here as a last resort. I've already done a search of the freebsd mailing lists and have posted several times to freebsd-questions but haven't received any information that has helped me resolve this problem. A while back, while trying to get my APC Smart-UPS 1000 to talk to my FreeBSD 3.4 system, I encountered a problem with the serial port. This problem inspired my to write an article that was published at this months edition of daemonnews. http://www.daemonnews.org/200009/adventure.html Regardless of what application I use to access my serial port (/dev/cuaa0), when I do, it causes my system to freeze up. CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE doesn't work, CTRL + ALT + F2 doesn't work,..you get the picture. When my system freezes like this, my only alternative is to do a cold reboot and I don't think this is too healthy a practice for any OS. After trying kermit to see if I can, at least, talk to the serial port, I get the same results when trying to connect. Someone suggested I also try minicom but I couldn't get it installed. It timed out when trying to access the ftp sites listed in the Makefile. I also tried to download and install a newer version but couldn't get that to work either. Possibly because my ports need to be updated. I've scoured the contents of all my logs and haven't found any error message that would give a clue as to why this keeps happening. The only thing I haven't tried is using a different serial cable. The folks at APC said they sell a specialized serial cable that's made to work with UNIX systems. I was about to purchase this cable and try it until I received an email from a guy, in response to my article at daemonnews, saying that he's experienced the exact same problem with his serial port as well. Even though he hasn't been trying to hook up a UPS but rather trying to get his modem to dial. My pc is a Compaq Deskpro 2000 (266mhz) with 64m RAM, running FreeBSD 3.4. There is only one serial port on this pc. There should be a way to find out why this keeps happening. Even if I find out that it's just not possible to get the serial port configured correctly for a UPS, I'd still like to know why. I've tried changing permissions for /dev/cuaa0 and the applications I've used to access the port/device, I've tried using ps aux, top and fstat to see if I can found out what process might be using the device but haven't found anything tangible. Even though it's not an emergency that I get this to work, it's a problem I'd like to get fixed or at least find out why I'll never get it to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Joe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message