No login prompt..

[maxcar]

Hi everyone

SCO openserver 5.0.5
Specialix SX multiserial card
Anzio Lite 12.6 terminal emulator on Windows OS

This happens to a customer of mine. He has many PCs using AnzioLite, connected with serial cables to the multiserial card on the ScoUnix box.
They start first the Unix system as usual.
When the users start the Anzio emulator on their Windows stations, they can't login: no login prompt appears on their screens. I noticed that the only way to let the prompt appear is to unplug and then plug again the serial cable to their PCs. Or use a kill -9 pid to let the getty restart... after this everything works fine (the emulator is very fine).

This happens to almost all the Anzio stations (one of them doesn't have this problem). Obviously I checked cables, setup and everything but nothing changed... it seems something related to garbage on the serial line when the pc is connected for the first time: is there a way to "flush" everything starting the getty/login processes?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Massimo

 

[tshot]

sometimes i have experienced asimliar problem of no login but in our case if we press enter then it works.

sometims yes we have to kill but that is once in a while.

could it be a case of different flow control in gettydefs/anzio and cable used ?

by cable i mean u are using only 3 wires but using h/w flow control




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ur feedback is a very welcome desire

 

[maxcar]

Hi
obviously the login doesn't appear neither pressing enter..
I don't think it's a wiring problem: it's the same wiring scheme (raccomened from Specialix) that works fine with other terminal emulators (anyway I tried various schemes with no success at all)
Furthermore, after the first successful login you can logout, discard the emulator, reload it and login again with no problem. The problem appears when you shut down the Win Pc and reboot it: the first time you try to login nothing happens...
Maybe there is a peculiar stty mode to set in the gettydefs entry to avoid the problem... at this stage I don't know which one is it.

Massimo

 

[stanhubble]

I would suspect the problem to be on the Windows side or conflicting flow control schemes.

What flow control does windows use on the serial port?
What flow control does the emulator expect?
what flow control does the specialix board expect?
Can you monitor the signals on the specialix board?
(we use digi's so i am not the most familiar with specialix)

 

[apeasecpc]

There are a number of things that could cause this:

What kind of multi-serial card is being used? I've had some problems with rocket-port cards and SCO 5.0.7.

What port ttys are being used? Your problem could be caused by using modem control ports with 3-4 wire serial cables.

What are the inittab and ttytype settings for the ports? There could be a problem with the ttytype or inittab entries.

Are there any Device entries for the ports in /usr/lib/uucp/Devices? There should not be any entries for direct serial terminals.

Have you tried connecting using different terminal software? I like to use the old Windows 3.1 terminal.exe program because it lets you easily change to different ports and speeds.

Since you are getting connections part of the time, the problem probably isn't the cabling. For troublshooting serial cabling I recommend getting a serial led indicator device that shows the connect and high status of each line (You can get these for under $20 at Radio Shack).

 

[edfair]

Earlier recommendations were to use 3 wire comms and handshaking electrically forced good. On the PC this means 4/5 and 6/20 jumpered together. And probably the same on the M/P card.
You could also try starting one of the PCs before the Unix box and see if missing the handshaking on startup is the cause of the problem.
You could also try disabling , then enabling one of the ports after it is hung. Working after enabling would indicate a problem in the handshake.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[tshot]

hi maxcar

hv u tried form HyperTerminal from windows.
also check the label and next-label values. keep them same. these are the start and the end values in gettydefs. the satrt or end label appears in yr inittab.

i rember of some proble when they were different. i don't remeber the systom but i do now remebr the cause


i have use various specailix cards 8 port ISA (now 8 port PCI) called I/O8+ and there 16 port cards using MTA. on these emulators on Win95/98/XP - hyperterm/SecureCRT/PowerTerm at speed of 57600

so there is nothing special required about they stty or gettydefs. i sed them for h/w flow control on dialup and direct connectivity. and in on eplace i have seen it working on 3 wires. no problem of flow control till the emulator/terminal is able to process data at its receiving speed

i have no ide of anzio





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ur feedback is a very welcome desire

 

[tshot]

also pl see the following

http://www.perle.com/support/t_solutions/serial_cards/SCSX0003.htm

it talks of some correction for sx in XP.






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ur feedback is a very welcome desire

 

[maxcar]

Sorry for the late reply..I solved the problem

The problem was the cabling: the cabling that Specialix raccomended (with pin 20th on one side connected to 4th on the other) didn't work well when used with a Pc com, or better.. with some PCs (some others worked fine with that cabling).
I broke the connection 20 to 4 and now everything runs fine..

Many thanks to tshot, stanhubble, apeasecpc, edfair
for their help

Massimo

 

[tshot]

good that this problem is solved

reg cabling is that pin 4 on a 9 pin. that means it was DTR to DTR ? is it a modem connection or a direct connection ? if it as direct (thta is no modem) then plae post the cable connection

i remeber in one of our setup the teminal was ignoring DTR so we chaned the &D2 to &D4 (or 0 idon't remeber but a a forced DTR) then we got login




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ur feedback is a very welcome desire