Author Topic: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS  (Read 18134 times)

ExPLIT

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2021, 10:44:03 pm »
I have been sort of following this, but it is not entirely clear what you are really trying to do.

I have two PCMCIA modems, that do work fine (well, I no longer have a telephone line to connect them to, but ZOC communicates with them), when I take the time to set it up properly (they are just serial ports, with a modem attached). PCMCIA is very sensitive to the order of the lines in CONFIG.SYS, and you probably need the /VW switch on the ACPI.PSD line (if you use ACPI.PSD, which you probably should). You would need the proper PCMCIA driver (sounds like you might have that, but see below), and the COM driver (use PSCOM.SYS). All that does (is supposed to do) is create a normal COM port. Check that with the MODE command. Then, if you need software (if any) for the attached device, you need the OS/2 version (a windows driver isn't going to work).

That may be a "pretend" PCMCIA adapter. I found this information for IBM Thinkpads: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ricoh_R5C476. Since your machine is actually quite new (in the life span of PCMCIA), you may have one of them (which would require it's own driver, probably not available for OS/2). In ArcaOS go to a command and run C:\sys\install\DETECT\pci.exe to get a list of what is actually attached (be sure to attach everything, then boot, then run the program). That should tell you which PCMCIA controller you actually have. Redirect the output to a file, and post it here.

ArcaOS does not install everything that you will need, but they do supply what is available for supporting the base PCMCIA. You need to supply any other OS/2 drivers that may be required, and add appropriate lines to CONFIG.SYS. It is in the DOCS, but the DOCS are ancient, and they don't tell you the whole story. I suggest getting my LCSS (Logical Config.Sys Sort - it is at HOBBES) to be sure that the lines are in the proper order, and position, in CONFIG.SYS. Also be aware, that "old notebooks" may have more than one serial port built in (possibly only used when attached to a dock). You may also need to have it all connected when you boot so it can do a proper configuration.

You might have better luck (and better performance) with a USB serial adapter, but be sure to get one that is known to actually work. I have a Belkin branded one, that almost works, but it depends on what you actually use it for. Years ago, I was able to operate a modem, but it didn't work with my UPS, or when trying to do a serial port trace.

Thank you for the answers. I will check your LCSS and post afterwards. Thanks for your advices, pretty all of them are solved, ton of the showstopper might be the propper order of the lines in the config.sys


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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #16 on: December 27, 2021, 11:45:23 pm »
Hi There ExPLIT

Hello guys. Need to reopen this topic again. After Update to ArcaOS 5.0.7.7 my PCMCIA Configuration is somehow back to default, and i am not able to activate my SSP-10 again the same way i did it before.

I know PCMCIA and OS/2 / ArcaOS is pain in the ass, but maybe someone can just point me out the main things.

My questions are rather simple:
As i found out earlier, the standard ArcaOS PCMCIA Driver (PCMCIA.SYS) is not the newest.I think its IBM Card Services Version 5.0.
Read somewhere, that the "CardBus Socket Services Version 8.0" ffrom IBM from the Yar 2004 are somehow "broken"
Is that the case, why ArcaOS didnt implement them?



After PCMCIA Installation many drivers are loaded in the config.sys, what thees drivers do, where i can read, what are they for, which parameters theu use etc.

BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V /R:500

REM (Intel PCMCIA Driver, which recognize my Ricoh Ricoh R5C476(II) just fine
REM BASEDEV=SS2PCIC1.SYS

REM (Intel PCMCIA Driver, which is also compatible with my Ricoh Ricoh R5C476(II)
BASEDEV=SSPCIC.SYS /E /AP:ON /BE:AUTO /VS:AUTO /II:OFF /IN:ON

BASEDEV=AUTODRV1.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VPCMCIA.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCMSSDIF.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCM2SRAM.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCM2FLSH.SYS

BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD /S:2 /!DM / NOBEEP
BASEDEV=OS2PCCARD.DMD



PS: At the moment my Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA Card got the Power, but is recognized as Memory card and not as SSP-100 and i think, the Bridge (or Socket) didnt get the IRQ.
On Windows i got IRQ 20 and 21 for my CardBus Controller (Slots)
IRQ 20 is shared with Realtek LAN Chip.

How i can force the driver to get IRQ 20 and 21?

Thanks

I'm coming into this conversation very late, but will provide some thoughts on this.

First of all, I have installed and used a Quatech ESC-100D card about twelve years ago. It is an internal PCI card which added extra Com Ports in the system (as many as eight) and could be used in addition to the serial ports which may have been installed already - at one point I had COM 1 to 11 available in one computer, all still working now (as to the reason originally  - don't ask).

ArcaOS is based on OS/2 and is really a very old OS - it does not play around with IRQ's very well and does not address the high numbered ones available on newer Windows versions, especially for many of these legacy items (like old communication ports) - it usually expects to see IRQ's in the classical places from the 80's.

Being a troubleshooter by nature and profession, I think this problem needs to be addressed methodically, from the beginning as I think we're going all over the board here.

First of all, about the computer your doing this on .............. whats in it?

1) Are you sure it doesn't have a serial port or ports already present? (up to just a few years ago, there was always built-in serial ports still present)

2) If so, what IRQ's are they using? (usually 3 or 4)

I ask because with the ESC-100D, the QCOM.SYS and QVCOM.SYS drivers are direct replacements for ArcaOS/eComstation/OS2 COM.SYS (Host System) and VCOM.SYS (DOS emulation) - the parameters you were describing, if they are for a serial port implementation seem weird to me - my memory may be foggy, but  I seem to recall IRQ 11 was used by parallel ports, not serial (correct me if I'm wrong guys). That may be giving ArcaOS indigestion.

These are the parameters I used in my config.sys for the Quatech ESC-100D
(And only after I REMMED out COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS)

I will use X to specify the drive - your X may be different than mine:

Device=X:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,3F8,4) (ESC-100D,5)
Device=X:\OS2\MDOS\QVCOM.SYS

These statements on my system were added directly after the place where COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS statements were in CONFIG.SYS. If you place the substitute Quatech drivers in those same directories and use the CONFIG statements above, they should load fine. I actually have third party drivers in other locations on my systems, so I will not go into the statements I normally use myself.

The first parameter (1,3F8,4) is I suspect the only one you need, as it addresses the legacy COM 1-4 for the Quatech driver QCOM - the second parameter asks the ESC-100D to also address the additional COM ports for that specific Quatech board, which is not applicable here.

I think if PCMCIA identifies your card correctly, then it will load as one of COM 1-4 as the Quatech card.

To my knowledge you do not need to have a parameter to address either VCOM or QVCOM, as the driver is emulating what you placed in COM or QCOM - if you are not planning to use ArcaOS DOS sessions, I suspect that can be REMMED out as well.

However, I think you definitely need to get PCMCIA working, and loaded correctly first - you listed many statements in your CONFIG.SYS above for PCMCIA but, unless you have wide variety of cards (Hard Drives, Extra Memory, etc. etc) your going to use, then essentially you don't need all of them and they can be REMMED out.

PCMCIA has become somewhat of a dinosaur, and your SSP-100 is responding in all those different ways, I suspect, because of those extra loaded drivers wanting to claim that card, when plugged in, thinking it applies to them - as Doug mentioned you probably need to just load base PCMCIA and either a generic or perhaps the specific Quatech driver that addresses just your card.

Its been quite a while since I last configured PCMCIA but if you have no other serial ports on the portable, PCMCIA may need to be loaded before QCOM or QVCOM. Not sure about that, and would have to look it up.

I am going to spend some time having a look at PCMCIA v5 tomorrow, as I have more things to do today - but perhaps some of these suggestions will help get your Quatech serial card both identified and running.

Best to you!

Mark
« Last Edit: December 28, 2021, 05:18:55 am by Mark Szkolnicki »
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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #17 on: December 28, 2021, 05:31:24 pm »
Good Morning ExPLIT!


Hello guys. Need to reopen this topic again. After Update to ArcaOS 5.0.7.7 my PCMCIA Configuration is somehow back to default, and i am not able to activate my SSP-10 again the same way i did it before.


I assume you chose the option to update your previous installation to the most current version of ArcaOS (5.0.7).

Doing that, the installer will install what it "believes" is the most "current" upgrades, based on what was installed previously. It sounds like the installer found the PCMCIA installation you did manually, and which worked, and overwrote those drivers, with the ones in its package, essentially putting you back in the same situation you were in when you previously installed the ones provided by ArcaOS (and which did not work).

I would reinstall what previously worked for you (the v5 drivers from Hobbes) that allowed the card to be recognized as CardBus and then try the parameters I suggested in CONFIG.SYS for QCOM.SYS, in my previous post.

After installing the upgrade to 5.0.7 I too had some problems but with the UniAud upgrade, which meant I had no sound. Reverting to what worked previously (an earlier version of UniAud) solved the problem.

The ArcaOS Upgrade Installer is only doing what it is programmed to do (ie. making sure everything is the most current). Sometimes that doesn't necessarily mean its "better".

Best!

Mark
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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #18 on: December 28, 2021, 09:18:50 pm »
Thanks for the info, will try!

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #19 on: December 28, 2021, 09:22:27 pm »
Hi There ExPLIT

Hello guys. Need to reopen this topic again. After Update to ArcaOS 5.0.7.7 my PCMCIA Configuration is somehow back to default, and i am not able to activate my SSP-10 again the same way i did it before.

I know PCMCIA and OS/2 / ArcaOS is pain in the ass, but maybe someone can just point me out the main things.

My questions are rather simple:
As i found out earlier, the standard ArcaOS PCMCIA Driver (PCMCIA.SYS) is not the newest.I think its IBM Card Services Version 5.0.
Read somewhere, that the "CardBus Socket Services Version 8.0" ffrom IBM from the Yar 2004 are somehow "broken"
Is that the case, why ArcaOS didnt implement them?



After PCMCIA Installation many drivers are loaded in the config.sys, what thees drivers do, where i can read, what are they for, which parameters theu use etc.

BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V /R:500

REM (Intel PCMCIA Driver, which recognize my Ricoh Ricoh R5C476(II) just fine
REM BASEDEV=SS2PCIC1.SYS

REM (Intel PCMCIA Driver, which is also compatible with my Ricoh Ricoh R5C476(II)
BASEDEV=SSPCIC.SYS /E /AP:ON /BE:AUTO /VS:AUTO /II:OFF /IN:ON

BASEDEV=AUTODRV1.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VPCMCIA.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCMSSDIF.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCM2SRAM.SYS
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\PCM2FLSH.SYS

BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD /S:2 /!DM / NOBEEP
BASEDEV=OS2PCCARD.DMD



PS: At the moment my Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA Card got the Power, but is recognized as Memory card and not as SSP-100 and i think, the Bridge (or Socket) didnt get the IRQ.
On Windows i got IRQ 20 and 21 for my CardBus Controller (Slots)
IRQ 20 is shared with Realtek LAN Chip.

How i can force the driver to get IRQ 20 and 21?

Thanks

I'm coming into this conversation very late, but will provide some thoughts on this.

First of all, I have installed and used a Quatech ESC-100D card about twelve years ago. It is an internal PCI card which added extra Com Ports in the system (as many as eight) and could be used in addition to the serial ports which may have been installed already - at one point I had COM 1 to 11 available in one computer, all still working now (as to the reason originally  - don't ask).

ArcaOS is based on OS/2 and is really a very old OS - it does not play around with IRQ's very well and does not address the high numbered ones available on newer Windows versions, especially for many of these legacy items (like old communication ports) - it usually expects to see IRQ's in the classical places from the 80's.

Being a troubleshooter by nature and profession, I think this problem needs to be addressed methodically, from the beginning as I think we're going all over the board here.

First of all, about the computer your doing this on .............. whats in it?

1) Are you sure it doesn't have a serial port or ports already present? (up to just a few years ago, there was always built-in serial ports still present)

2) If so, what IRQ's are they using? (usually 3 or 4)

I ask because with the ESC-100D, the QCOM.SYS and QVCOM.SYS drivers are direct replacements for ArcaOS/eComstation/OS2 COM.SYS (Host System) and VCOM.SYS (DOS emulation) - the parameters you were describing, if they are for a serial port implementation seem weird to me - my memory may be foggy, but  I seem to recall IRQ 11 was used by parallel ports, not serial (correct me if I'm wrong guys). That may be giving ArcaOS indigestion.

These are the parameters I used in my config.sys for the Quatech ESC-100D
(And only after I REMMED out COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS)

I will use X to specify the drive - your X may be different than mine:

Device=X:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,3F8,4) (ESC-100D,5)
Device=X:\OS2\MDOS\QVCOM.SYS

These statements on my system were added directly after the place where COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS statements were in CONFIG.SYS. If you place the substitute Quatech drivers in those same directories and use the CONFIG statements above, they should load fine. I actually have third party drivers in other locations on my systems, so I will not go into the statements I normally use myself.

The first parameter (1,3F8,4) is I suspect the only one you need, as it addresses the legacy COM 1-4 for the Quatech driver QCOM - the second parameter asks the ESC-100D to also address the additional COM ports for that specific Quatech board, which is not applicable here.

I think if PCMCIA identifies your card correctly, then it will load as one of COM 1-4 as the Quatech card.

To my knowledge you do not need to have a parameter to address either VCOM or QVCOM, as the driver is emulating what you placed in COM or QCOM - if you are not planning to use ArcaOS DOS sessions, I suspect that can be REMMED out as well.

However, I think you definitely need to get PCMCIA working, and loaded correctly first - you listed many statements in your CONFIG.SYS above for PCMCIA but, unless you have wide variety of cards (Hard Drives, Extra Memory, etc. etc) your going to use, then essentially you don't need all of them and they can be REMMED out.

PCMCIA has become somewhat of a dinosaur, and your SSP-100 is responding in all those different ways, I suspect, because of those extra loaded drivers wanting to claim that card, when plugged in, thinking it applies to them - as Doug mentioned you probably need to just load base PCMCIA and either a generic or perhaps the specific Quatech driver that addresses just your card.

Its been quite a while since I last configured PCMCIA but if you have no other serial ports on the portable, PCMCIA may need to be loaded before QCOM or QVCOM. Not sure about that, and would have to look it up.

I am going to spend some time having a look at PCMCIA v5 tomorrow, as I have more things to do today - but perhaps some of these suggestions will help get your Quatech serial card both identified and running.

Best to you!

Mark

Thanks for the info Mark, the main Problem is, that the CardBus does not getting an IRQ.
Will look what is the case for this bug.

Under Windows the cardbus adapter is using IRQ 20 and 21 for every Socket. I have only one PCMCIA socket on my JVC MP-XV941, but the SD-Card-Slot is hanging on the same Ricoh CardBUS Controller and is initialized as a second cardbus slot.

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #20 on: December 31, 2021, 02:48:57 am »
Hi ExPLIT


Thanks for the info Mark, the main Problem is, that the CardBus does not getting an IRQ.
Will look what is the case for this bug.

Under Windows the cardbus adapter is using IRQ 20 and 21 for every Socket. I have only one PCMCIA socket on my JVC MP-XV941, but the SD-Card-Slot is hanging on the same Ricoh CardBUS Controller and is initialized as a second cardbus slot.


I'm curious about one statement you made above - when you say "the SD-Card-Slot is hanging on the same Ricoh CardBUS Controller and is initialized as a second cardbus slot", are you referring to in Windows XP or ArcaOS?

Actually I think the whole issue of whether Windows XP can see the card at IRQ's 20 and/or 21 is irrelevant to the conversation, unless for some reason your portable in the BIOS has hard coded or assigned the IRQ's in a fixed manner, as in that case the assignment is OS independent.

That is highly unlikely as, because of the myriad combinations of equipment which any OS may encounter they normally are programmed to assign IRQ's or other resources on a dynamic basis as needed.

You have to understand that ArcaOS and Windows XP operate in entirely different manners, ExPLIT. There were synergies decades ago when OS/2, the forerunner to ArcaOS was first developed, as many aspects of the code was shared with Windows when it became an OS, up to the development of Windows NT.

ArcaOS now and Windows XP, despite both becoming more and more of a legacy OS are two very different OS's, programming wise.

ArcaOS is based on enhancing the original OS/2 which did have many commonalities with Windows up to Windows NT, as mentioned. However after that, Windows OS's were rewritten to advance a lot of the functionality to address new technologies from the ground up, and we have, for legal reasons, not been able to advance ArcaOS in the same manner. ArcaOS has advanced strictly through the extraordinary dedication of a cadre of very skilled people, and a lot of ingenuity from same, and the rest of the community in support. We've attempted to continue to enhance what was there originally, which as things advance more and more, is becoming increasingly difficult, given the limitations involved.

So not addressing IRQ 20 and 21 is not really a bug - you could call it a feature.

If you indeed want to use the Quatech Serial card you have under ArcaOS, you really have to work within these limitations and think outside of the Windows XP universe, as well as all other things Windows.

So what really needs to happen, if you wish to proceed, is an evaluation of the following - namely why is the PCMCIA implementation not running as you wish it to? And can it be fixed?

I can't answer that specifically, but having done similar in the past, after 30 years using OS/2 / eComStation and ArcaOS, I would ask you to consider the following:

Pretty well all of the PCMCIA implementation in ArcaOS is based on what the various drivers are supposed to do. So the question really is, progressing in a logical manner:

1) What driver provides the base PCMCIA support framework?
2) What driver provides access to the PCMCIA controller in your computer? (As I recall there were many such at the time for OS/2 - are you using the correct one? Even though it may be named the same I recall there were many such at the time and you needed the correct one.)
3) What driver assigns the IRQ to the card being plugged in, whether it was present on boot-up or being hot swapped?
4) What driver supplies the specific information related to how to use your card, whether in a generic manner or specifically?
5) For the Quatech serial communication drivers, do the parameters for QCOM.SYS provide the IRQ information, or something within 1) to 4) above, and QCOM just accesses that?

One driver may provide multiple of the above ............ or not.

I guess you see the puzzle involved, friend - do you have all of the correct jigsaw puzzle pieces, or do you need to juggle some around and see if they fit? It sounds like Windows XP provided all the ones needed to function automatically, unless my first question indicates that problems were noted there as well - so, as you are attempting to do the same with ArcaOS you may need to puzzle things out in a more creative manner yourself, with what help we can give you.

Some things could be as simple as rearranging the order of drivers loading in CONFIG.SYS. Or it could be simply that one driver needs to be replaced with another.

Ask as many questions as you need - we may not have the answers, but we can give you what may be clues and perspective. If you do solve the puzzle, the first thing you should do is report back to us as to what you did to successfully get things running. Martin Iturbide has been spending a lot of his personal time trying to document successes - and successes are what keeps what we are doing with ArcaOS running for the current foreseeable future.

Best!

Mark
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ExPLIT

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #21 on: December 31, 2021, 03:29:28 am »
Thanks Mark for the long and very useful answer!

I think i have solved (kind of) the puzzle:
Got my Quatech SSP-100 PCMCIA Card recognised with PCMCIA Socket Services 8.0.
PCMCIA Controller Driver, which i succesflully used is Intel SS2PCIC.SYS
commercial Driver APSoft SSPCIC.SYS also recognizes my PCMCIA Controller Ricoh R5C476 II but i got it not working with it.

The magic tric was in this line:
BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V /R:500

While the ArcaOS Socket Services 5.0 need the /R:500 to operate in the 5.0 Version of socket Services (Default one is 2.0)
in the newer IBM Socket Services 8.0 this switch should be removed.
After i removed /R:500 swithch, i got the message, that the Card Services Version are 8.0 and suddenly the SSP-100 was recognized as a Modem (COM1), got Power and seems to work.

Will attach some screenshots tomorrow...

Thanks for all the answers, comments and advises! Happy new year!

PS: Sorry, I dont find yet an Screenshot tool for ArcaOS, so i made some pictures:

Hardware Manager, PCIINFO and Card Services.

The most curious thing that i found out (might be also useful for another Ricoh R5C476II CardBus enabled Notebooks (Like ThinkPads X2x, X4x, A30):
Later ThinkPads (like X3x, X4x, X6x, T4x) have later Ricoh Cardbus Controller, which also emulates R5C476II.

The PCMCIA Serial Card is only enabled and got Power, when an FAT-formatted SD-Card is in the SD-Card slot  !
The sound absolutely unbelievable, but when i boot without SD-card in the slot - the PCMCIA Card didn't get power and is not recognized at all.


Here are relevant parts of my CONFIG.SYS:

REM *** PCCARD 8 ***
BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V
BASEDEV=SS2PCIC1.SYS /E
REM BASEDEV=SSPCIC.SYS /E /AP:ON /BE:AUTO /VS:AUTO /II:OFF /IN:ON
BASEDEV=AUTODRV2.SYS
BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD /S:2 /!DM /NOBEEP
BASEDEV=OS2PCARD.DMD
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\VPCMCIA.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCMSSDIF.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCM2SRAM.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\FLSH2MTD.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCM2FLSH.SYS

REM *** QUATECH SSP-100 PCMCIA RS232 ***
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,2F8,3) /L
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QVCOM.SYS (1,2F8,3)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\SSP100.SYS COM1


REM *** SERIAL COM PORT DRIVERS ***
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\COM.SYS (2,3F8,4)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\PSCOM.SYS (2,3F8,4)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS (2,3F8,4)

Quatech QCOM and QVCOM Drivers did not find UART and i have disabled them. For now i use PSCOM and VCOM.
PSCOM need to be set to COM2 (2, 3F8, 4), otherwise SSP100.SYS cant use COM1. A bit strange, but for now it works.
I am happy, that the whole story somehow find an happy end. Learned a lot.... :)

Happy new year to all!!



« Last Edit: January 01, 2022, 09:21:09 pm by ExPLIT »

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #22 on: December 31, 2021, 02:29:03 pm »
Hi ExPLIT

I have updated the OS2World wiki with your latest comments: Quatech SSP-100 Single Port RS-232 Serial PCMCIA Card

Please let me know what else I can add there just to document how you have it working. What were all the changed in config.sys?

Regards
« Last Edit: December 31, 2021, 02:50:49 pm by Martin Iturbide »
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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #23 on: December 31, 2021, 06:47:04 pm »
added the missing info, happy new year and thanks to all for all the help!

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #24 on: January 01, 2022, 10:29:20 pm »
Hi ExPLIT

I have updated the OS2World wiki with your latest comments: Quatech SSP-100 Single Port RS-232 Serial PCMCIA Card

Please let me know what else I can add there just to document how you have it working. What were all the changed in config.sys?

Regards

When it is helpful i can describe the whole installation process and hardware support for my tested Notebook:
JVC Mobile Note MP-XV841/941 or Asus S300N (Same Hardware Base)

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #25 on: January 03, 2022, 10:20:06 pm »
Good Afternoon ExSPLIT!

A Happy New Year to you as well!

I'm glad you found a solution that worked - as I mentioned, people in this forum are very creative in the way we need to approach problems with ArcaOS - many times the solution is unexpected and the solution not perfect, but we have found through the collective memory here, from roughly thirty years of this operating system, to apply legacy solutions to things, as well as find solutions to address current and future issues. We get a lot of help from examining what the very active Linux community does currently, and attempt to use their solutions a lot, adapted to our situation (CUPS support is a perfect example of that, as it has given us access to printers we could not use otherwise)


Thanks Mark for the long and very useful answer!

I think i have solved (kind of) the puzzle:
Got my Quatech SSP-100 PCMCIA Card recognised with PCMCIA Socket Services 8.0.
PCMCIA Controller Driver, which i succesflully used is Intel SS2PCIC.SYS
commercial Driver APSoft SSPCIC.SYS also recognizes my PCMCIA Controller Ricoh R5C476 II but i got it not working with it.


As I mentioned previously, there are so many different drivers out there related to PCMCIA controllers especially and many I remember seeing in the past were even named the same but were totally different - sometimes you had to examine what date the driver was created to see which version was the correct one.

Quote

The magic tric was in this line:
BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V /R:500

While the ArcaOS Socket Services 5.0 need the /R:500 to operate in the 5.0 Version of socket Services (Default one is 2.0)
in the newer IBM Socket Services 8.0 this switch should be removed.

After i removed /R:500 switch, i got the message, that the Card Services Version are 8.0 and suddenly the SSP-100 was recognized as a Modem (COM1), got Power and seems to work.


Also not surprising.

If you are following a discussion in another thread, on Zip IDE drives, you will find mention of the Danis506 hard drive driver, which was contributed originally by Daniela Engert, who was very talented at developing those types of drivers, being a software engineer - without her Dani drivers ArcaOS would not exist now, as IBM discontinued enhancing their hard drive support driver years before.

A driver version may have the same name but, because its been updated or enhanced, certain switches may be legacy or may be obsolete or only needed under certain circumstances.

From EDM/2 (http://www.edm2.com/index.php/PCMCIA.SYS )

PCMCIA.SYS - This Card Services driver for OS/2 provides base support for PC Cards:

/R:200  Specify that card services will conform to the PCMCIA 2.0 standard. This is the default value.
/R:500  Specify that card services will conform to the PCMCIA 5.0 standard instead of the PCMCIA 2.0 standard which is the default value.
/P In previous releases, this parameter disabled the hardware interrupt which was used by OS/2 Socket Services drivers to notify clients of a change in status. Neither the new Card Services nor Socket Services drivers for OS/2 use a hardware interrupt to signal PCMCIA status changes. So this parameter is no longer needed.

So the /R:500 switch was needed for v5, as you mentioned - it is obviously not necessary  and obsolete for v8.0 of Cardbus.

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PS: Sorry, I don't find yet an Screenshot tool for ArcaOS, so i made some pictures:


I use a very useful piece of legacy software called PMView

https://www.pmview.com/

The OS/2 version still works and is updated occasionally but is a for pay software.

It can do screen capture and read and display many graphics types as well as other features.

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Hardware Manager, PCIINFO and Card Services.

The most curious thing that i found out (might be also useful for another Ricoh R5C476II CardBus enabled Notebooks (Like ThinkPads X2x, X4x, A30):
Later ThinkPads (like X3x, X4x, X6x, T4x) have later Ricoh Cardbus Controller, which also emulates R5C476II.

The PCMCIA Serial Card is only enabled and got Power, when an FAT-formatted SD-Card is in the SD-Card slot  !
The sound absolutely unbelievable, but when i boot without SD-card in the slot - the PCMCIA Card didn't get power and is not recognized at all.


Here are relevant parts of my CONFIG.SYS:

REM *** PCCARD 8 ***
BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS /V
BASEDEV=SS2PCIC1.SYS /E
REM BASEDEV=SSPCIC.SYS /E /AP:ON /BE:AUTO /VS:AUTO /II:OFF /IN:ON
BASEDEV=AUTODRV2.SYS
BASEDEV=PCM2ATA.ADD /S:2 /!DM /NOBEEP
BASEDEV=OS2PCARD.DMD
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\VPCMCIA.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCMSSDIF.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCM2SRAM.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\FLSH2MTD.SYS
DEVICE=D:\PCCARD\PCM2FLSH.SYS


I suspect one of the device statements above may be the culprit - as I mentioned, if your not planning to use any other PCMCIA devices you can probably comment them out. I guess it depends on how the removable SD card reader is being handled by ArcaOS (if it is - can you read the card, is a drive letter assigned for it, and if so is the drive readable or unreadable?).

We have many SD readers that are not able to be read under ArcaOS.

From EDM/2 ( http://www.edm2.com/index.php/PCM2ATA.ADD)

PCM2ATA.ADD - Driver for PCMCIA hard disk drives.

/S:n - Specifies the number of PC Card slots. /S:1 shows that there is only one PC Card slot. When this parameter is not set, the number of PC Card slots is set to 2.
/P:hhhh - Specifies the lower limit for the I/O address of the ATA card. The device driver assigns the next usable I/O address from this lower limit to the card. When this parameter is not set, the device driver looks for a usable address and assigns it to the card.
/EXIRQ:n - Specifies the IRQ level that is not assigned to the card. You can set more than one IRQ level.
/NOBEEP - Specifies not to beep when a storage card is installed. When this parameter is not set, you will hear a beep every time a storage card is installed into the PC Card slot.
 /B - Specifies that OS/2 has started from an ATA card. When this parameter is set, there will be no redundancy in assigning the logical drive to the slot where OS/2 was booted. It depends on the ATA card whether you can start OS/2 from it.
/STBTIME:n - Specifies the time (from 1 to 21 minutes) until entering standby mode. When the ATA card is not accessed for the time specified by this parameter, the ATA card enters standby mode (only when your ATA card supports standby mode). When this parameter is not specified, standby mode for the ATA card is disabled.
/MDRV:n - Specifies the number of extra drives that can be used in addition to the number of PC Card slots available for the PCMCIA storage devices. When this parameter is not specified, no extra drive is given to the device driver. The extra drives can be activated by the PCMCIA ATA Card Mount utility.
/!DM - Specifies not to use OS2DASD.DMD as the device manager. When this parameter is set, OS2PCARD.DMD is used instead.

From https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/ftpdir/thinkpad/old-archive/HTML/tp-1998/msg00867.html

OS2PCARD.DMD : Storage Driver for OS/2
PCMSSDIF.SYS :Storage Driver for OS/2 (Interface)
PCM2SRAM.SYS - Storage Driver for OS/2 (SRAM)
PCM2FLSH.SYS - Storage Driver for OS/2 (FLASH)
FLSH2MTD.SYS :Storage Driver for OS/2 (FLASH MTD)   

As those all have to do with storage or memory, that might solve your problem related to the SD Card, but again you also can keep things as they are - sometimes if it ain't broke you don't fix it.

2Martin - I also included the references above for your Wiki's, if it is useful  M

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REM *** QUATECH SSP-100 PCMCIA RS232 ***
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,2F8,3) /L
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QVCOM.SYS (1,2F8,3)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\SSP100.SYS COM1


I ran into this statement related to the Quatech Drivers in the OS2COM.PDF which may explain whats happening:

2.3.4 Quatech PCMCIA Serial Port Adapters

Do not place parameters on the QCOM.SYS command line for these products.
The client device drivers take parameters for PCMCIA serial ports. See the client
driver documentation for details.

So I assume that it is the SSP-100 driver that is providing the info, as the SSP-100 manual indicates it is a "parent/child device". However it also might be that the QCOM driver needs to be placed where PSCOM.SYS is. But as I've said, no need to fix if it is working the way you want it.

The explanation may also be below.

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REM *** SERIAL COM PORT DRIVERS ***
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\COM.SYS (2,3F8,4)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\PSCOM.SYS (2,3F8,4)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS (2,3F8,4)

Quatech QCOM and QVCOM Drivers did not find UART and i have disabled them. For now i use PSCOM and VCOM.
PSCOM need to be set to COM2 (2, 3F8, 4), otherwise SSP100.SYS cant use COM1. A bit strange, but for now it works.
I am happy, that the whole story somehow find an happy end. Learned a lot.... :)


I still suspect some other serial device is present in your computer ExPLIT that is taking the first COM it can find, unless you override the statement as you did above.

Reading up on PSCOM.SYS ( http://www.edm2.com/index.php/PSCOM.SYS ), I see it is required for serial communications on ACPI systems of which ArcaOS is one, with the following parameters:

/V - Verbose
/W - Wait verbose mode. Displaying pauses with a "Press Enter to continue..." message.
/F - Find COM ports on PCI combo (serial/parallel) cards automatically.

Also to specify address and interrupt manually, it indicates to use the syntax (port,address,IRQ), e.g.:
Set COM3 and COM4 at address 3E8 on IRQ 4 and 2E8 on IRQ 3 which you did.

it does not indicate whether it is a direct replacement for COM.SYS but it has the same switches, so I assume it is.

That could also explain the reason the QCOM drivers do not work - it also makes me wonder whether, if I upgrade the tower with the Quatech ESD-100D card, whether the extra COM ports there will not work - an interesting experiment to try (I have two OS/2 based partitions on each system so nothing lost in way of functionality if that does occur.

2Martin - another little tidbit that may help someone in future.

Perhaps whoever writes and maintains PSCOM.SYS can enlighten us as to its capabilities (and how it interacts with VCOM.SYS or not.

But thank you for the post, ExPLIT as I've learned quite a bit here as well - hope everything you wanted works out for the best and a fine day to you!

Mark
Vincit Que Se Vincit - "He Who Conquers Self Succeeds"

Dave Yeo

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Re: Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS
« Reply #26 on: January 03, 2022, 10:59:14 pm »
For screen capture, the official application that will (does?) ship with ArcaOS is https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/graphics/scrncapt/Gotcha_2-0-1-0.wpi simple and works.
I also use Embellish, I believe this was the last one and includes registration info, https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/graphics/paint/Embellish_2-02.zip
Of course PMView is perhaps the best currently supported one.