[9fans] Re: bitsy question

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

In article <3B38BA06.E55B62AC@bway.net> you write:
>I have Plan9 installed on my ipaq, but I don't have a pcmcia sleeve,
>or wavelan on my network.

Ouch; that makes it much more difficult to use, as you have discovered.

>So I have been trying to link the bitsy to my terminal using ppp over
>the serial port. (I made a ramdisk with ip/ppp).
>
>PPP tries to authenticate for 30 seconds (through chap, I think) then
>times out.
>
>I've tried running ppp a few different ways, but something like
>	
>	ip/ppp -df -b 115200 -p /dev/eia0 -s $user:$secret 135.104.99.5
>
>on the bitsy and something like
>	
>	ip/ppp -dfS -b 115200 -p /dev/eia0 135.104.99.1
>
>on the server.
>
>Has anyone tried this? What am I doing wrong?

Well, at least one thing that you're probably encountering is that the
bitsy tries to use the serial port as a console device, and is
hardwired in the kernel to do so.  In order to fix that, you have to
edit the kernel sources in /sys/src/9/bitsy/ and recompile; I managed
to turn it off by changing the argument to sa1110_uartsetup() to zero
in main.c.  However, if you do ONLY that, the machine panics when it
comes up because the keyboard input queue for the console device is
nil.  Whoops!  You have to change sa1110_uartsetup() in sa1110uart.c
(the last routine in the file) to assign a valid Queue pointer to
kbdq.  I just changed the relevant section to be:

	if(console) {
		uartspecial(p, 115200, &kbdq, &printq, kbdcr2nl);
	} else {
		kbdq = qopen(4*1024, 0, 0, 0);
	}

That is, adding the ``else'' clause which calls qopen.  I'm not sure
that this is the best method; if there's a better one, I'd be
interested to know.

btw- the serial console mode can be really handy at times; it's nice to
be able to put the bitsy on it's cradle, start up con, and then type
into bitsy windows without using bitsy/keyboard.  The hand becomes much
less cramped.

Anyway, I'm assuming this is something you haven't messed with yet;
it'd most definately mess with ip/ppp, since every other character gets
redirected to /dev/cons!

Another problem you may have is that the bitsy uart driver doesn't
really do modem control; actually, it might be more accurate to say
that the StrongARM SA1100 doesn't do modem control signaling directly.
Instead, it simulates it using the GPIO pins on the 1100.  I'm not sure
what exactly, if anything, the bitsy does differently in this regard
(the driver has a comment about the RTS/CTS stuff being h3600 specific,
but nothing more); my attempts to add DTR and RTS/CTS modem control to
the serial driver didn't work the way I had expected them to (I was
trying to hack them in in order to get my Targus stowaway keyboard
working; I did get it to mostly ``do the right thing,'' but it wasn't
perfect and I got busy with other stuff.  I'll get back to it
eventually.)

I've been meaning to try out ppp on the bitsy, using my ricochet modem,
but I haven't round a serial cable for it yet (well, I haven't exactly
been looking that hard).  I definately thing it'd be pretty cool to use
my bitsy to send email from the train.

bway.net, huh?  You in New York?  Anyone else on the list in NYC?  We
ought to start a New York Plan 9 Club or something.

	- Dan C.