editors: Suggestions for Serial HOWTO
Subject:
Suggestions for Serial HOWTO
From:
"Charles Brockman" ####@####.####
Date:
23 Jan 2006 23:45:43 -0000
Message-Id: <003301c62077$0f9bbea0$0100a8c0@abitceleron>
I recently compiled a list of corrections to the Serial HowTo document which I
attempted to email privately to David Lawyer. His service provider, lafn.org,
thinks that both of my providers, AT&T and Juno, are spam lovers. All my emails
were blocked. I'll submit my corrections to this list in the hopes that Dave or
some other editor will see them.
At the end of section 4.3,
"See Serial Port Devices /dev/ttyS2, etc. for more details>" should be
"See Serial Port Devices /dev/ttyS2, etc. for more details."
"4.2 IO Address & IRQ" should probably be
"4.2 Input/Output Address & Interrupt Request"
This is the first appearance of those terms in the document and should be
spelled out. The explanation of the abbreviations can wait for the text which
follows immediately. I would change
"...the operating system must know that each serial port exists and where it is
(its I/O address)." to something like
"...the operating system must know that each serial port exists and where it is
(its Input/Output or I/O address)."
and
"It also needs to know which wire (IRQ number) the serial port must use to
request service from the computer's CPU." should be
"It also needs to know which wire (Interrupt Request or IRQ number) the serial
port must use to request service from the computer's CPU."
Then
"Thus every serial port device must store in its non-volatile memory both its
I/O address and its Interrupt ReQuest number: IRQ." could be
"Thus every serial port device must store in its non-volatile memory both its
I/O address and IRQ."
Strictly speaking, the IRQ is not a "wire" and every serial port is not required
to have "non-volatile" memory but that may be ignored for now since it's
explained in section 9.2.
In section 4.4
"...since the serial port has registers at IO addresses known..." for
consistency should be
"...since the serial port has registers at I/O addresses known..."
In section 6.7
"See Avoiding IO Address Conflicts with Certain Video Boards" should be
"See Avoiding I/O Address Conflicts with Certain Video Boards"
Similarly in section 8
"...assigning each port an IO address..." should be
"...assigning each port an I/O address..."
"This IO-IRQ pair must be set..." should be
"This I/O-IRQ pair must be set..."
"...are used to set the I0 and IRQ in the hardware." should be
"...are used to set the I/O and IRQ in the hardware."
[Also changing the zero to a capital O.]
"See Locating the Serial Port: IO address IRQs..." should be
"See Locating the Serial Port: I/O Address, IRQ..."
[See below.]
"9. Locating the Serial Port: IO address, IRQs" should be
"9. Locating the Serial Port: I/O Address, IRQ"
[Keeping everything singular and adding the title capitalization.]
There are about a dozen more IO to I/O and I0 to I/O changes which should be
made (being careful not to change BIOS to BI/OS).
In section 9.2
"...jumpers on a card or the a saved BIOS setting does it." should be
"...jumpers on a card or a saved BIOS setting does it."
"...and the new hardware doesn't remember how it was set once it's powered
Enabling hardware it gives it both an IRQ and an IO address." is likely missing
a word and a period. Perhaps it should be
"...and the new hardware doesn't remember how it was set once it's powered down.
Enabling hardware gives it both an IRQ and an IO address."
[Also dropping the extra "it."]
"...if the jumpers are set to the usual I0/IRQ." should be
"...if the jumpers are set to the usual I/O-IRQ."
[Again changing the zero to an O.]
"All PCI ports should support this but for ISA, it only works for some
hardware." should be
"All PCI ports should support this but for ISA it only works for some hardware."
"It may be just as easy to give each port a unique interrupt if they is
available." should be
"It may be just as easy to give each port a unique interrupt if they are
available."
"...only probe I0 addresses..." should be
"...only probe I/O addresses..."
In section 9.3
"...determine it's IRQ..." should be
"...determine its IRQ..."
"The driver may assign the port to say "<CODE>ttyS04" per a boot-time
message..." needs a closing HTML code:
"The driver may assign the port to say <CODE>ttyS04</CODE> per a boot-time
message..."
[Also removing the extraneous quotation marks.]
In the next sentence
"But if you don't have a "file" </CODE>dev/ttyS4 then the port will not work."
should be
"But if you don't have a "file" <CODE>dev/ttyS4</CODE> then the port will not
work."
"So you will then need to create it, using<BR><CODE>cd /dev</CODE> and then
<CODE>./MAKEDEV ttyS4</CODE>" should be
"So you will then need to create it, using <CODE>cd /dev</CODE> and then
<CODE>./MAKEDEV ttyS4</CODE>"
[Removing the HTML break.]
In section 9.5
"To determine if both I0-IRQ pairs..." should be
"To determine if both I/O-IRQ pairs..."
In section 9.6 the two paragraphs beginning with "At first you see what was
detected..." and "Note that ttyS0-ttyS2 were detected..." shouldn't be tagged in
HTML as <CODE> and <PRE> but plain text.
"Your may check them manually with..." should be
"You may check them manually with..."
"The data shown by the BIOS messages (which you see at first before Linux is
booted) is what is initially set in the hardware." should be
"The data shown by the BIOS messages (which you see at first before Linux is
booted) are what is initially set in the hardware."
[Data are always plural.]
In section 9.10
"Using isapnp for a PnP serial port non-PCI)" should be
"Using isapnp for a non-PCI PnP serial port"
In section 10.2
"or for stty version >= 1.17:" should not be in an HTML <CODE> block.
In section 11.1
"Note that the the number 1 above is just an example." should be
"Note that the number 1 above is just an example."
In section 11.3
"devfs creased a new system..." should be
"devfs created a new system..."
"This is works OK if it finds a driver." should be
"This works OK if it finds a driver."
In section 11.7
"...which you specified during the installation Except if you have a bus mouse,
then /dev/mouse will point to the bus mouse device)." should be
"...which you specified during the installation except if you have a bus mouse.
Then /dev/mouse will point to the bus mouse device."
In section 11.9
"If the above command doesn't work (and your are the root user)..." should be
"If the above command doesn't work (and you are the root user)..."
In section 12.1
"modemstat (Only works correctly on Linux PC consoles." should be
"modemstat (Only works correctly on Linux PC consoles.)"
In section 12.3
"For modern port's, there's usually better ways to look for them." should be
"For modern ports, there's usually better ways to look for them."
"It's was reported that other processes..." should be
"It was reported that other processes..."
"Later on it's most likely was found in..." should be
"Later on it most likely was found in..."
"...Redhat didn't as first..." should be
"...Redhat didn't at first..."
"An example line in such a script was"" should be
"An example line in such a script was"
[Extraneous double quotation mark.]
"...2. you've complied in support for this..." should probably be
"...2. you've compiled in support for this..."
In section 12.4
"Hitting any key will restarts the flow..." should be
"Hitting any key will restart the flow..."
In section 13.1 and others, "Speeds over 115.2k" should probably be written
"Speeds over 115.2 kbps" and indicating at the first appearance that kbps mean
kilobits per second.
In section 16.3
"...install 2@ line drivers in the serial line..." should probably be
"...install 2 line drivers in the serial line..."
I would removed the "Taste voltage" part of section 17.1. No one should ever
intentionally take an electric shock.
In section 17.6 the paragraph HTML tag (<P>) should be removed from "See What
Are UARTS?"
The title of section 17.7,
"The Startup Screen Show Wrong IRQs for the Serial Ports." should be
"The Startup Screen Shows Wrong IRQs for the Serial Ports"
The first sentence of section 17.8 should end with a period instead of an
underline.
--
Charles Brockman
