Digi RealPort Device Driver Version 2.4.2 Solaris 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8 for SPARC and Intel Release Notes P/N 93000184_K Diskette P/N (3.5) 40001174_J 08/08/01 CONTENTS Section Description 1 Introduction 2 Supported Products 3 Enhancements 4 Bug Fixes 5 Known Limitations 6 PortServer Setup 7 RealPort Setup 8 History 1. INTRODUCTION The Digi Solaris RealPort driver makes the serial ports on a Digi RealPort enabled product appear as though they are local tty devices directly attached to the computer. When the system boots, one ncxd daemon is spawned for each RealPort enabled unit. Each daemon makes a single TCP/IP connection to its associated RealPort enabled unit and sends all asynchronous serial data on this single connection. Digi RealPort enabled ports can be accessed any time they are configured for RealPort operations and are not otherwise in use. The RealPort service requires the TCP/IP driver to be installed and properly configured. 2. SUPPORTED PRODUCTS RealPort is supported on the following Digi products: Digi One RealPort Device Server EtherLite 2 EtherLite 160 EtherLite 162 PortServer 8 PortServer 16 PortServer II 16 PortServer TS 2 PortServer TS 4 PortServer TS 8 PortServer TS 16 3. ENHANCEMENTS The internals of the driver have been rewritten. The driver was rewritten to make the driver more robust and efficient. This driver has all of the functionality of the previous driver. One exception is that this driver now supports extended baud rates. Extended baud rates are baud rates supported by Solaris that allow serial devices to exceed 38400 baud. Previously these higher baud rates could only be accessed using the "ditty fastbaud" option. The method for installing new realport devices has been modified. RealPort devices can now be added and deleted using a tool called drpadmin. The method for adding realport devices at package install time has been removed. The option of selecting where the realport devices are placed has been removed. The realport devices are placed in the following directories: /dev/dty <- tty and cu devices /dev/dpr <- transparent print devices /dev/cua <- links to cu devices /dev/term <- links to tty devices 4. BUG FIXES A bug that had the potential to cause data loss has been resolved. 5. KNOWN LIMITATIONS If a Digi RealPort enabled unit loses power it may be necessary to wait for up to 2 minutes before communication is re-established with the device. If a port is interrupted in the middle of data transfer it will not die until the data has completely drained. It is beleived that this behavior occurs because of a bug in the Solaris kernel. There is a kernel function called by the Solaris ldterm module that does not respond to a KILL signal when it should. 6. PORTSERVER SETUP The Digi PortServers are full featured terminal and communication servers whose configuration is detailed in the PortServer Manual. We note here the minimum needed for RealPort operation. First you must login as root on the PortServer. You can connect a 9600 baud 8N1 terminal to port 1, or (if you obtained an IP address through RARP or BOOTP) you can telnet to the box. The factory default root password is "dbps". Basic IP parameters must be set up before the PortServer will operate on the network. If you have not done this with RARP or BOOTP, you must do it from the command line. Substitute your own IP address, net mask and (optionally) gateway address into the following PortServer command: set config ip=192.168.0.1 submask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.0.254 The RealPort driver works best if you configure associated PortServer devices as printers. It works VERY POORLY if the devices are configured as terminals, for example. The following command sets up ports 1-16 as device type prn (printer). set port range=1-16 dev=prn If 8-pin RJ-45 plugs are used in the PortServer, the altpin option should be selected to make DCD available on one of the inner pins. The following command sets altpin on 16 ports. set flow range=1-16 altpin=on You can check the current configuration with: set config set flow range=1-16 set port range=1-16 7. REALPORT SETUP The RealPort package can be installed by the following command: pkgadd -d 40001174_X.bin The RealPort devices can be setup using the drpadmin tool. To run the tool you must be root. Run the tool with the following command: drpadmin The drpadmin tool is simple to use. You can add a RealPort device, remove a RealPort device, or view the currently setup RealPort devices. The drpadmin tool will ask for an IP address, number of ports, and the tty device id. The IP address should be the IP address or domain name associated with the IP address that was assigned to the RealPort enabled unit when the unit itself was configured. The number of ports are simply the number of serial ports on the device. The tty device id is the id that will be incorported into the tty device names. The tty devices will be created in the following directories: Directory for actual serial devices: /dev/dty Directory for print devices: /dev/dpr Directory for links to tty devices: /dev/term Directory for links to cu devices: /dev/cua The Digi RealPort package can be removed by the following command. It is recommended that all devices related to the package are closed before removing a package. pkgrm realport See the install_notes.txt located in the /opt/realport directory for more details on RealPort tty device operation. 8. HISTORY Version 1.8.0 - June 6, 2001 Enhancements: Added support for the PortServer III terminal server. Added support for the PortServer Lite terminal server. Added support for the EtherLite terminal server. Version 1.7.1 - January 25, 2001 Enhancements: Updated Release Notes to include support for Solaris 2.8. Bug Fixes: Fixed a system panic that resulted from an invalid putctl. Fixed a problem sending break through to console. Version 1.7.0 - October 19, 2000 Enhancements: Added support for Solaris 2.8 to Release Notes. Version 1.7.0 - January 10, 2000 Bug Fixes: A problem with the driver holding a lock while removing the service routines from the service queue has been resolved. The symptom of this error was a fairly random system crash that was seen on multi-processor systems. Enhancements: Changed format of release notes. Version 1.6.0 - November 23, 1998 Enhancements: Added support for Solaris 2.7. Added 64 bit support for SPARC 2.7 portion of driver. Version 1.5.0 - May 15, 1998 Bug Fixes: Fixed a failing connectivity issue, seen with more than 4 PortServers. Version 1.4.0 - December 23, 1997 Bug Fixes: Fixed a daemon reattach problem seen over frame relay connection. Fixed problem with EBI modules not functioning properly.