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Use of Moxa serial card with SMP kernels

DISCUSSION Bruce Marshall 5 participants 7 messages Jun 17, 2004 – Jun 21, 2004

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Bruce Marshall

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Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel (2.6.7)

I was told back when 2.6.4 was new that the selection of a Moxa serial card was not possible if an SMP kernel was selected. I used the work-around of not using an SMP kernel.

My question: Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a
temporary situation?

Thanks.

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+ Bruce S. Marshall  [email protected]  Bellaire, MI         06/17/04 11:08  +
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#1 lore raw

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 11:12:39 -0400 Bruce Marshall wrote:

| Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel  (2.6.7)
| 
| I was told back when 2.6.4 was new that the selection of a Moxa serial card 
| was not possible if an SMP kernel was selected.  I used the work-around of 
| not using an SMP kernel.
| 
| My question:   Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a 
| temporary situation?

It's permanent until someone takes the time and trouble to fix it.

Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections. See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,

Is anyone working on this? not that I've heard of. Have you tried this email address:
Copyright (C) 1999-2000 Moxa Technologies ([email protected]).

Is anyone out there motivated to fix this? This is Bruce's real question, I believe.

--
~Randy

#5 lore raw
In reply to Bruce Marshall

On Thu, 2004-06-17 11:12:39 -0400, Bruce Marshall <[email protected]> wrote in message <[email protected]>:

Quoted 4 lines

Moxa serial card option not available when requesting an SMP kernel (2.6.7)

My question: Is this a permanent problem which will never be fixed or a
temporary situation?

It seems the Moxa driver is known-broken when running on a SMP system. So this is permanent until somebody hacks it to work on multi-processor machines...

MfG, JBG

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#2 lore raw
In reply to Randy.Dunlap
Quoted 8 lines · Randy.Dunlap

Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections. See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,

Is anyone working on this? not that I've heard of. Have you tried this email address:
Copyright (C) 1999-2000 Moxa Technologies ([email protected]).

I'd try writing and asking about it; they were very helpful when we had problems.

Signature · 3 lines
Ragnar Hojland - Project Manager
Linalco "Specialists in Linux and Free Software"
http://www.linalco.com  Tel: +34-91-4561700
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#3 lore raw
Quoted 6 lines · Ragnar Hojland Espinosa
Quoted 5 lines · Randy.Dunlap

Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections. See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,

Quoted 6 lines
Quoted 3 lines

Is anyone working on this? not that I've heard of. Have you tried this email address:
Copyright (C) 1999-2000 Moxa Technologies ([email protected]).

I'd try writing and asking about it; they were very helpful when we had problems.

I agree.... I have written to them - they have responded already asking for more info - and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Bruce S. Marshall  [email protected]  Bellaire, MI         06/18/04 08:56  +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
"The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve
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#4 lore raw
In reply to Ragnar Hojland Espinosa
Quoted 6 lines · Ragnar Hojland Espinosa
Quoted 5 lines · Randy.Dunlap

Both Moxa serial drivers (moxa & mxser) are BROKEN_ON_SMP because they use cli() to disable interrupts for critical sections. See Documentation/cli-sti-removal.txt for details.
They will need some acceptable modern form of protection there,

Quoted 6 lines
Quoted 3 lines

Is anyone working on this? not that I've heard of. Have you tried this email address:
Copyright (C) 1999-2000 Moxa Technologies ([email protected]).

I'd try writing and asking about it; they were very helpful when we had problems.

Yes, they are responsive. Here is the current reply:

Dear Bruce,

I've got updated news from the R&D Div., they are testing the latest beta version of the driver for all the Moxa cards, only they can not provide me with a precise schedule. Your case will be remaining open until it is resolved, I will also keep you update with the information.

Best Regards,

Stephen Lin / Technical Support Engineer
Moxa Technologies Co., Ltd.

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+ Bruce S. Marshall  [email protected]  Bellaire, MI         06/21/04 10:06  +
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