COM Port Setup

[christech]

I am trying to setup a COM port under ArcaOS. Do I need to add any statements in Config.sys? I tried mode com1 through com8 and it's not recognized. I don't see any COM ports in the hardware manager either. I'm not using a USB->Serial but an actual COM port on the motherboard.

[Doug Bissett]

I am trying to setup a COM port under ArcaOS. Do I need to add any statements in Config.sys? I tried mode com1 through com8 and it's not recognized. I don't see any COM ports in the hardware manager either. I'm not using a USB->Serial but an actual COM port on the motherboard.

The AcaOS installer often misses the presence of a COM port. Look in CONFIG.SYS, for:

Code: [Select]

DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\PSCOM.SYS(C: is your boot drive). If it is not there, add it. If it is there (a remote possibility is that it will be COM.SYS), it should work.

Note, that software modems won't always work.

[christech]

Yeah I looked and it's not in my Config.sys. I will add it. I remember on my USB->Serial I needed to add a Device statement.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello christech

Even that I have two USB to Serial adapters, I no longer have an Serial device to try it out  :'(

I wrote a little thing on the wiki under "Testing the Device" : https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Prolifc_PL2303_USB_2.0_to_COM

If you succeed your testing, I will apreciate if you can post back the HardwareID of your USB to Serial device, and with which serial device did you make it work.

Regards

[christech]

I sure will it's a generic USB one.. I got it from Amazon. It was doing some weird stuff though. It mostly worked, I have a thread here somewhere. I have a ton of serial devices that I want to test out, like some CP/M SBC's and Routers/Switches etc.

[christech]

Here you go Martin:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port /
Mobile Action MA-8910P

The USB->Serial was throwing up weird escape sequences or something similar when connecting to equipment. When I tried the same equipment with a built-in old school serial port, they weren't showing the escape sequences. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So like I said, mostly worked.

Link to product -> https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Compatible-RS-232-DB9-Connector-Prolific/dp/B00425S1H8/

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks for the reply

It is good to know that is working, the hardwareID looks the same that the one I have.

Regards

[Doug Clark]

Chris,

If you are just running USB to Serial adapter you do not need COM.SYS in your config.sys.   If you are using a serial port on your motherboard (which you mentioned) you probably do need the COM.SYS - and VCOM.SYS for Dos programs - unless your device supplies its own device driver.

The device driver you need for a USB to serial adapter depends on the adapter - meaning the chipset in the adapter.  It also depends on which version of the USB stack you are using on your machine.  There are also parameters you can supply to the DEVICE=  line in your CONFIG.SYS  for USB to serial adapters that may affect the operation of the adapter.  I would suggest you check the USB section of the wiki on Arcanoae.com.  It will potentially save you time and effort.  I speak from experience.

[christech]

I played around with my USB->Serial adapter tonight. Hooked up my rack of switches to the console port. With my PL2303 chipset I needed to add /Z for it to be stable to the device entry for USBCOM.SYS

Works pretty good with ZoC.

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks christech for providing feedback.

[christech]

Another thing I noticed this time around.. receiving input works great, but inputting text was an issue, it wanted to put an asterisk in between each character when typing so that this:

show ip int brief

looked like this:

s*h*o*w* * i*p* * i*n*t* * b*r*i*e*f*

when typing. I tried playing around with the "mode com1" settings but haven't found a solution. Lucky, ZoC has a text input field where I can type text and send it. I purchased a PCI-e serial card and will test it with ArcaOS later this week.

[christech]

Installed the PCIe serial port card and added the device entry for pscom in config.sys and I get a trap error every time I try to access the com port. Seems like it’s being recognized though. I opened a ticket on mantis. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Andi B.]

looked like this:

s*h*o*w* * i*p* * i*n*t* * b*r*i*e*f*

Never seen such before. What terminal setting do you have in ZOC? Do you have a DBSC system? What does 'copy anytextfile.txt com1:' produce on the other end?

I've different more than one USB->RS232 converters running here without such strange problems though.

[Pete]

Hi cristech

If you still have the usbcom.sys line in config.sys the pscom.sys line needs to be above/before that line.


Regards

Pete

[christech]

Hey Pete, that's the first thing I thought of, but it still TRAP'd. I did get it working though. I did some Google-fu and came across an on blondeguy.com about serial ports.  When adding the device statement to config.sys you add some fake port definitions. My motherboard does not have serial port headers, so now I have COM1-4. 

Code: [Select]

DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\PSCOM.SYS /V /F (1,3F8,4) (2,2F8,3)
and what I get now is 2 fake COM1 and COM2 ports and my PCIe card took over COM3 and COM4.


I used the Startech PCIe card here: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pex2s553