setserial

SETSERIAL(8) System Manager's Manual SETSERIAL(8)

NAME

   setserial - get/set Linux serial port information

SYNOPSIS

   setserial [ -abqvVWz ] device [ parameter1 [ arg ] ] ...

   setserial -g [ -abGv ] device1 ...

DESCRIPTION

   setserial  is  a  program designed to set and/or report the configuration information associated with a serial port.  This information includes what I/O port
   and IRQ a particular serial port is using, and whether or not the break key should be interpreted as the Secure Attention Key, and so on.

   During the normal bootup process, only COM ports 1-4 are initialized, using the default I/O ports and IRQ values, as listed below.  In  order  to  initialize
   any  additional  serial  ports,  or to change the COM 1-4 ports to a nonstandard configuration, the setserial program should be used.  Typically it is called
   from an setserial script, which is usually run out of /etc/init.d.

   The device argument specifies which device to configure or to interrogate.  Examples: /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyS2, /dev/ttyS3, etc.

   If no parameters are specified, setserial will print out the port type (i.e., 8250, 16450, 16550, 16550A, etc.), the hardware  I/O  port,  the  hardware  IRQ
   line, its "baud base," and some of its operational flags.

   If the -g option is given, the arguments to setserial are interpreted as a list of devices for which the characteristics of those devices should be printed.

   Without the -g option, the first argument to setserial is interpreted as the device to be modified or characteristics to be printed, and any additional argu‐
   ments are interpreted as parameters which should be assigned to that serial device.

   For the most part, superuser privilege is required to set the configuration parameters of a serial port.  A few serial port parameters can be set  by  normal
   users, however, and these will be noted as exceptions in this manual page.

OPTIONS

   Setserial accepts the following options:

   -a     When reporting the configuration of a serial device, print all available information.

   -b     When  reporting  the  configuration of a serial device, print a summary of the device's configuration, which might be suitable for printing during the
          bootup process, during the /etc/rc script.

   -G     Print out the configuration information of the serial port in a form which can be fed back to setserial as command-line arguments.

   -q     Be quiet.  Setserial will print fewer lines of output.

   -v     Be verbose.  Setserial will print additional status output.

   -V     Display version and exit.

   -W     Do wild interrupt initialization and exit.  This option is no longer relevant in Linux kernels after version 2.1.

   -z     Zero out the serial flags before starting to set flags.  This is related to the automatic saving of serial flags using the -G flag.

PARAMETERS

   The following parameters can be assigned to a serial port.

   All argument values are assumed to be in decimal unless preceded by "0x".

   port port_number
          The port option sets the I/O port, as described above.

   irq irq_number
          The irq option sets the hardware IRQ, as described above.

   uart uart_type
          This option is used to set the UART type.  The permitted types are none, 8250, 16450, 16550, 16550A, 16650, 16650V2, 16654, 16750, 16850,  16950,  and
          16954.  Using UART type none will disable the port.

          Some  internal  modems  are billed as having a "16550A UART with a 1k buffer".  This is a lie.  They do not have really have a 16550A compatible UART;
          instead what they have is a 16450 compatible UART with a 1k receive buffer to prevent receiver overruns.  This is important, because they do not  have
          a  transmit  FIFO.   Hence, they are not compatible with a 16550A UART, and the autoconfiguration process will correctly identify them as 16450's.  If
          you attempt to override this using the uart parameter, you will see dropped characters during file transmissions.  These  UART's  usually  have  other
          problems: the skip_test parameter also often must be specified.

   autoconfig
          When  this  parameter  is  given, setserial will ask the kernel to attempt to automatically configure the serial port.  The I/O port must be correctly
          set; the kernel will attempt to determine the UART type, and if the auto_irq parameter is set, Linux will attempt to automatically determine the  IRQ.
          The autoconfig parameter should be given after the port,auto_irq, and skip_test parameters have been specified.

   auto_irq
          During autoconfiguration, try to determine the IRQ.  This feature is not guaranteed to always produce the correct result; some hardware configurations
          will fool the Linux kernel.  It is generally safer not to use the auto_irq feature, but rather to specify the IRQ to be used explicitly, using the irq
          parameter.

   ^auto_irq
          During autoconfiguration, do not try to determine the IRQ.

   skip_test
          During  autoconfiguration,  skip  the UART test.  Some internal modems do not have National Semiconductor compatible UART's, but have cheap imitations
          instead.  Some of these cheesy imitations UART's do not fully support the loopback detection mode, which is used by the kernel to make sure there  re‐
          ally  is  a UART at a particular address before attempting to configure it.  So for certain internal modems you will need to specify this parameter so
          Linux can initialize the UART correctly.

   ^skip_test
          During autoconfiguration, do not skip the UART test.

   baud_base baud_base
          This option sets the base baud rate, which is the clock frequency divided by 16.  Normally this value is 115200, which is also the fastest  baud  rate
          which the UART can support.

   spd_hi Use 57.6kb when the application requests 38.4kb.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   spd_vhi
          Use 115kb when the application requests 38.4kb.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   spd_shi
          Use 230kb when the application requests 38.4kb.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   spd_warp
          Use 460kb when the application requests 38.4kb.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   spd_cust
          Use  the  custom  divisor to set the speed when the application requests 38.4kb.  In this case, the baud rate is the baud_base divided by the divisor.
          This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   spd_normal
          Use 38.4kb when the application requests 38.4kb.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   divisor divisor
          This option sets the custom divisor.  This divisor will be used when the spd_cust option is selected and the serial port is set to 38.4kb by  the  ap‐
          plication.  This parameter may be specified by a non-privileged user.

   sak    Set the break key at the Secure Attention Key.

   ^sak   disable the Secure Attention Key.

   fourport
          Configure the port as an AST Fourport card.

   ^fourport
          Disable AST Fourport configuration.

   close_delay delay
          Specify  the  amount  of  time,  in hundredths of a second, that DTR should remain low on a serial line after the callout device is closed, before the
          blocked dialin device raises DTR again.  The default value of this option is 50, or a half-second delay.

   closing_wait delay
          Specify the amount of time, in hundredths of a second, that the kernel should wait for data to be transmitted from the serial port while  closing  the
          port.   If  "none" is specified, no delay will occur. If "infinite" is specified the kernel will wait indefinitely  for the buffered data to be trans‐
          mitted.  The default setting is 3000 or 30 seconds of delay.  This default is generally appropriate for most devices.  If too  long  a  delay  is  se‐
          lected,  then  the serial port may hang for a long time if when a serial port which is not connected, and has data pending, is closed.  If too short a
          delay is selected, then there is a risk that some of the transmitted data is output at all.  If the device is extremely  slow,  like  a  plotter,  the
          closing_wait may need to be larger.

   session_lockout
          Lock  out callout port (/dev/cuaXX) accesses across different sessions.  That is, once a process has opened a port, do not allow a process with a dif‐
          ferent session ID to open that port until the first process has closed it.

   ^session_lockout
          Do not lock out callout port accesses across different sessions.

   pgrp_lockout
          Lock out callout port (/dev/cuaXX) accesses across different process groups.  That is, once a process has opened a port, do not allow a process  in  a
          different process group to open that port until the first process has closed it.

   ^pgrp_lockout
          Do not lock out callout port accesses across different process groups.

   hup_notify
          Notify  a  process blocked on opening a dialin line when a process has finished using a callout line (either by closing it or by the serial line being
          hung up) by returning EAGAIN to the open.

          The application of this parameter is for getty's which are blocked on a serial port's dialin line.  This allows the getty to reset  the  modem  (which
          may have had its configuration modified by the application using the callout device) before blocking on the open again.

   ^hup_notify
          Do not notify a process blocked on opening a dialin line when the callout device is hung up.

   split_termios
          Treat the termios settings used by the callout device and the termios settings used by the dialin devices as separate.

   ^split_termios
          Use the same termios structure to store both the dialin and callout ports.  This is the default option.

   callout_nohup
          If this particular serial port is opened as a callout device, do not hangup the tty when carrier detect is dropped.

   ^callout_nohup
          Do  not  skip hanging up the tty when a serial port is opened as a callout device.  Of course, the HUPCL termios flag must be enabled if the hangup is
          to occur.

   low_latency
          Minimize the receive latency of the serial device at the cost of greater CPU utilization.  (Normally there is an  average  of  5-10ms  latency  before
          characters are handed off to the line discipline to minimize overhead.)  This is off by default, but certain real-time applications may find this use‐
          ful.

   ^low_latency
          Optimize for efficient CPU processing of serial characters at the cost of paying an average of 5-10ms of latency before the characters are  processed.
          This is the default.

CONSIDERATIONS OF CONFIGURING SERIAL PORTS

   It  is  important to note that setserial merely tells the Linux kernel where it should expect to find the I/O port and IRQ lines of a particular serial port.
   It does *not* configure the hardware, the actual serial board, to use a particular I/O port.  In order to do that, you will need to  physically  program  the
   serial board, usually by setting some jumpers or by switching some DIP switches.

   This section will provide some pointers in helping you decide how you would like to configure your serial ports.

   The "standard MS-DOS" port associations are given below:

          /dev/ttyS0 (COM1), port 0x3f8, irq 4
          /dev/ttyS1 (COM2), port 0x2f8, irq 3
          /dev/ttyS2 (COM3), port 0x3e8, irq 4
          /dev/ttyS3 (COM4), port 0x2e8, irq 3

   Due to the limitations in the design of the AT/ISA bus architecture, normally an IRQ line may not be shared between two or more serial ports.  If you attempt
   to do this, one or both serial ports will become unreliable if you try to use both simultaneously.  This limitation can be overcome by special multi-port se‐
   rial port boards, which are designed to share multiple serial ports over a single IRQ line.  Multi-port serial cards supported by Linux include the AST Four‐
   Port, the Accent Async board, the Usenet Serial II board, the Bocaboard BB-1004, BB-1008, and BB-2016 boards, and the HUB-6 serial board.

   The selection of an alternative IRQ line is difficult, since most of them are already used.  The following table lists the "standard MS-DOS"  assignments  of
   available IRQ lines:

          IRQ 3: COM2
          IRQ 4: COM1
          IRQ 5: LPT2
          IRQ 7: LPT1

   Most  people  find  that IRQ 5 is a good choice, assuming that there is only one parallel port active in the computer.  Another good choice is IRQ 2 (aka IRQ
   9); although this IRQ is sometimes used by network cards, and very rarely VGA cards will be configured to use IRQ 2 as a vertical retrace interrupt.  If your
   VGA card is configured this way; try to disable it so you can reclaim that IRQ line for some other card.  It's not necessary for Linux and most other Operat‐
   ing systems.

   The only other available IRQ lines are 3, 4, and 7, and these are probably used by the other serial and parallel ports.  (If your serial  card  has  a  16bit
   card edge connector, and supports higher interrupt numbers, then IRQ 10, 11, 12, and 15 are also available.)

   On AT class machines, IRQ 2 is seen as IRQ 9, and Linux will interpret it in this manner.

   IRQ's  other  than  2  (9), 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 15, should not be used, since they are assigned to other hardware and cannot, in general, be changed.
   Here are the "standard" assignments:

          IRQ  0      Timer channel 0
          IRQ  1      Keyboard
          IRQ  2      Cascade for controller 2
          IRQ  3      Serial port 2
          IRQ  4      Serial port 1
          IRQ  5      Parallel port 2 (Reserved in PS/2)
          IRQ  6      Floppy diskette
          IRQ  7      Parallel port 1
          IRQ  8      Real-time clock
          IRQ  9      Redirected to IRQ2
          IRQ 10      Reserved
          IRQ 11      Reserved
          IRQ 12      Reserved (Auxiliary device in PS/2)
          IRQ 13      Math coprocessor
          IRQ 14      Hard disk controller
          IRQ 15      Reserved

MULTIPORT CONFIGURATION

   Certain multiport serial boards which share multiple ports on a single IRQ use one or more ports to indicate whether or not there are any pending ports which
   need to be serviced.  If your multiport board supports these ports, you should make use of them to avoid potential lockups if the interrupt gets lost.

   In  order  to  set  these ports specify set_multiport as a parameter, and follow it with the multiport parameters.  The multiport parameters take the form of
   specifying the port that should be checked, a mask which indicate which bits in the register are significant, and finally, a match parameter which  specifies
   what the significant bits in that register must match when there is no more pending work to be done.

   Up  to  four such port/mask/match combinations may be specified.  The first such combinations should be specified by setting the parameters port1, mask1, and
   match1.  The second such combination should be specified with port2, mask2, and match2, and so on.  In order to disable this multiport checking, set port1 to
   be zero.

   In order to view the current multiport settings, specify the parameter get_multiport on the command line.

   Here are some multiport settings for some common serial boards:

          AST FourPort    port1 0x1BF mask1 0xf match1 0xf

          Boca BB-1004/8  port1 0x107 mask1 0xff match1 0

          Boca BB-2016    port1 0x107 mask1 0xff match1 0
                          port2 0x147 mask2 0xff match2 0

Hayes ESP Configuration

   Setserial may also be used to configure ports on a Hayes ESP serial board.

   The following parameters when configuring ESP ports:

   rx_trigger
          This  is the trigger level (in bytes) of the receive FIFO. Larger values may result in fewer interrupts and hence better performance; however, a value
          too high could result in data loss. Valid values are 1 through 1023.

   tx_trigger
          This is the trigger level (in bytes) of the transmit FIFO. Larger values may result in fewer interrupts and hence better performance; however, a value
          too high could result in degraded transmit performance. Valid values are 1 through 1023.

   flow_off
          This is the level (in bytes) at which the ESP port will "flow off" the remote transmitter (i.e. tell him to stop stop sending more bytes).  Valid val‐
          ues are 1 through 1023.  This value should be greater than the receive trigger level and the flow on level.

   flow_on
          This is the level (in bytes) at which the ESP port will "flow on" the remote transmitter (i.e. tell him to resume sending bytes) after  having  flowed
          it off.  Valid values are 1 through 1023.  This value should be less than the flow off level, but greater than the receive trigger level.

   rx_timeout
          This  is the amount of time that the ESP port will wait after receiving the final character before signaling an interrupt.  Valid values are 0 through
          255.  A value too high will increase latency, and a value too low will cause unnecessary interrupts.

CAUTION

   CAUTION: Configuring a serial port to use an incorrect I/O port can lock up your machine.

FILES

   /etc/serial.conf /etc/init.d/setserial