Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA in ArcaOS

[ExPLIT]

Hello collegues, since 4 weeks /me fighting with PCMCIA Stack under ArcaOS.

What i have:
Old Notebook Asus S300N (S3N), clone of JVC MP-XV941.
Ricoh R5C476 II PCMCIA Controller
This controller is supported with the built in Driver Intel SS2PCIC.SYS and with commercial Driver APSoft SSPCIC.SYS.
I bought the commercial driver, its recognised by the APSoft SSPCIC.SYS driver, but i can't activate an PCMCIA Serial Port Card
Quatech SSP-100, which have OS/2 Drivers.

Maybe some of you had the same Problem and can help me?

Quatech SSP-100 Driver has 3 files:

Client Driver SSP100.SYS which is loaded without any problems
Serial Port Driver QCOM.SYS
Serial Virtual COM Port Driver for DOS Apps QVCOM.SYS

Under Windows XP the same driver is working without any problems. It gets a little bit weird address FFF8 and IRQ11.

When i put the driver in the CONFIG.SYS in this order:

DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,FFF8,11) /L
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QVCOM.SYS (1,2E8, 3)
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\SSP100.SYS COM1

In the manual they write, that SSP100.SYS Client driver need to be below the QCOM.SYS.
Thats doesn't matter, what parameter i give to QCOM.SYS - i always get an error: UART not found. 

I would be very happy, if someone could tell me, if i make something wrong, or the PCMCIA COM-Port card is simply not recognized by the system.
Modify message
*

[Lars]

I am not sure if you can expect ArcaOS to have the very same port number and irq as under Windows. There is the possibility that an OS will reassign PCI resources.
What you would need to do is run PCI.EXE under ArcaOS and look what that controller is really using as port number and IRQ. If you are lost, just run PCI.EXE and dump it's output into a text file and attach it here.

[Lars]

... and by the way, maybe you have to specify the parameters in a different order. Try (FFF8,11,1). Do you have a readme for the OS/2 driver?

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

1) Maybe it is unrelated, but the "os2com.pdf" says the QCOM.SYS parameters for PCMCIA should be empty. (Page 8 - 2.3.4 QuatechPCMCIA Serial Port Adapters)

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.

Are you sure that "DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,FFF8,11) /L" was working for you on OS/2 before on PCMCIA?

2) Also, for what I can find, SSP100.SYS driver, is for the "Quatech SPP-100 Enhanced Parallel Port Type II PCMCIA Card", but I'm not completely sure it does not apply for the serial adapter too. (Quatech SPP-100 Enhanced Parallel Port Type II PCMCIA Card manual)

3) Also, confirm that you have REM out "COM.SYS" and "VCOM.SYS" from the config.sys.

4) Is your PCMCIA Serial card the one on the picture?

Regards

[Pete]

Hi

Never had to fanny around with PCMCIA at all myself but this page looks like it may be of help http://office.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/quatech/quatech_ssp_ssp100.html?p=42


Regards

Pete

[ivan]

I know this may seem an odd question but what do you intend to use it for?  I ask because there might be easier ways of doing what you want.

[ExPLIT]

Thanks guys for so many answers. I never expected i will got so many answers!

If i put
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS
without any parameters, it doesn't load. I got an messages, that the line is ignored.

I commented out the standard
COM.SYS & VCOM.SYS
when i try to load the QCOM.SYS Driver. Without commenting the standart com-drivers out, the QCOM.SYS is always doesn't load and ignored.

SSP100.SYS is client driver for exact this PCMCIA Serial Port SSP-100.

Will do my experiments and inform you guys.
Again:
Thank you very much for so many replies!

[ExPLIT]

Hi

1) Maybe it is unrelated, but the "os2com.pdf" says the QCOM.SYS parameters for PCMCIA should be empty. (Page 8 - 2.3.4 QuatechPCMCIA Serial Port Adapters)

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.

Are you sure that "DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\QCOM.SYS (1,FFF8,11) /L" was working for you on OS/2 before on PCMCIA?

2) Also, for what I can find, SSP100.SYS driver, is for the "Quatech SPP-100 Enhanced Parallel Port Type II PCMCIA Card", but I'm not completely sure it does not apply for the serial adapter too. (Quatech SPP-100 Enhanced Parallel Port Type II PCMCIA Card manual)

3) Also, confirm that you have REM out "COM.SYS" and "VCOM.SYS" from the config.sys.

4) Is your PCMCIA Serial card the one on the picture?

Regards

2) SSP100.SYS is definit the serial port driver for SSP-100 PCMCIA Serial card. Installed from Quatech original CD.
3) Yes, REM out COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS
4) Yes, exact the same card.

[ExPLIT]

I know this may seem an odd question but what do you intend to use it for?  I ask because there might be easier ways of doing what you want.

I would like to have an serial port terminal emulator for connecting to old hardware via RS232 Serial Port.
Of course it works oob under Windows with the same card, but i would be better, when it would work out of ArcaOS.

[ExPLIT]

Somehow, th driver doesn't find the UART Controller on the PCMCIA.

I will try the same card under ThinkPad X61s.
X61s has the same Ricoh R5C476 II PCMCIA Controller but a way better BIOS with much more optins. Will try that.

Thanks

[Martin Iturbide]

2) SSP100.SYS is definit the serial port driver for SSP-100 PCMCIA Serial card. Installed from Quatech original CD.

My mistake I confused "SSP100.SYS" with "SPP100.SYS"

ExPLIT, do you have a version number of the QCOM.SYS and QVCOM.SYS drivers you are using? The latest version I was able to find is 3.23.

Regards

[ExPLIT]

My mistake I confused "SSP100.SYS" with "SPP100.SYS"

ExPLIT, do you have a version number of the QCOM.SYS and QVCOM.SYS drivers you are using? The latest version I was able to find is 3.23.

I use the same driver version!.

By the way, problem is solved from other direction:

It seems, that ArcaOS install an old (or not full) implementation of PCMCIA Card Services.
I installed this version:

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?detail=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fsystem%2Fdrivers%2FPCCard%2FPCCard_5_2002-04-04.zip

Which updates PCMCIA Driver but unfortunately not for my Cardbus chipset.
After installing
PCCard Services R5 from Hobbes and reinstalling them afterwards from Selective install i saw, that my Ricoh R5C476 II Name changed in Hardware Manager.
Now its recognised as "CardBus" and not as "Socket Controller".

Now the Qtech SSP-100 is correctly recognised as serial card in the gui.
For the serial port i use PSCOM.SYS
Serial Port is recognised in the device manager.

QCOM.SYS still not working (not recognised the card).


Thanks guys for your help!

[/quote]

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi ExPLIT

So, the PCMCIA Driver is now working and showing you an inserted PCMCIA card in the GUI. (By using the PCCard_5_2002-04-04.zip driver).

QCOM.SYS is not working, so the "Quatech SSP-100 Serial Port PCMCIA" is not working yet?

Regards

[Doug Bissett]

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.

[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