Release Notes PN 93000304C Digi AccelePort Device Driver V1.5.0 OpenVMS AXP 7.3 & 8.2 August 18, 2005 1. Description Once the Digi device driver is configured and installed, each of the serial ports available via these boards will be accessible as terminal devices with a prefix of TX. All of the functionality of the general VMS terminal driver is support by these devices. There will also be an extra device for each board - this device (whose number equals the total number of ports available on that board) is a control device, designed to be utilized with Digi support tools, such as DOWNLD and DPA. 2. Enhancements The installation methodology for the device driver kit has been modified with this release. Rather than being distributed in diskette (or diskette image) format, the driver is being distributed electronically in the native OpenVMS PCSI format. As a result, the installation instructions in existing documentation may no longer be accurate. See the section on "Installation Notes" below for details. 3. Bug Fixes A firmware based failure was addressed. The failure symptoms included adapter crashes (generally appears to be all ports simultaneously freezing) after extremely large volumes of data were passed by the adapter. A patch to the output code has been applied which is intended to help prevent hangs when using PPP with the Digi devices. The handling of serial "BREAK" transmission was corrected. There were conditions in which the "BREAK" signal would be asserted and would not be de-asserted at the proper time. 4. Installation Notes The installation methodology for this driver kit has changed. With the new method, the driver packages are made available in native OpenVMS PCSI format, thus eliminating the need to create a floppy disk for installation purposes. There are now tthree key steps to installing the software: 1. Obtain the appropriate binary PCSI image 2. Set the file attribution parameters 3. Execute the product installation utility Detailed Instructions: 1. Obtain the appropriate binary PCSI image The file naming is as follows: VMS version 7.3 --> DIGI-AXPVMS-DGDRIVER_7-D0105-0-1.PCSI VMS version 8.2 --> DIGI-AXPVMS-DGDRIVER_8-D0105-0-1.PCSI 2. Set file attributes. $set file/attr=(rfm:fix,lrl=512,rat=none) DRIVER_NAME.PCSI 3. Execute the product installation utility This is as simple as executing: $ PRODUCT INSTALL DGDRIVER_7/HELP _or_ $ PRODUCT INSTALL DGDRIVER_8/HELP Depending on whether the 7.3 or 8.2 version is being installed. 5. Known Limitations According to Compaq, a patch kit must be installed by users of VMS V6.1 with multiprocessor systems. This patch (which fixes an operating system spinlock problem) is available from the Compaq support group and is identified as: AXPSYS07_061. Autobaud detection does not work above 19.2K baud. This is a limitation of the VMS operating system. Compaq projects that support will be extended to rates of 57.6K in OpenVMS V7.0. Due to limitations of the OpenVMS Alpha operating system, hardware flow control is not currently supported under VMS 6.x, and has only limited support under VMS 7.x. The COMMSYNC terminal attribute provides the functionality for a form of output flow control in hardware using the RS-232 signal "CTS", but there is currently no supported mechanism for input flow control. Serial baud rates higher than 115.2K are not supported, but a mechanism now exists to allow one to configure some Digi adapters to read and write data at these unsupported rates. See the description of the FASTBAUD qualifier to DIGITERM for details. The configuration utility requires the MACRO compiler and the ability to LINK as it currently stands - this may change with further releases. The VMS version of the Digi driver does not support some of the utilities and features which are available in implementations on other operating systems, including: DigiPRINT - A feature which allows transparent printing via the printer port on an active terminal dscreen - A utility providing multiple terminal connections via a single physical terminal "Fast cook" - Hardware based character processing 6. HP Qualification: For information regarding the matrix of platforms and products which have been qualified for use in conjunction with Digi's hardware and software, please visit the HP support website or contact your HP support representative. 7. USING DIGITERM DIGITERM is a utility designed to provide another mechanism for getting and setting the terminal parameters of Digi devices. While the syntax and output are similar to those found in the DCL commands "SET TERM" and "SHOW TERM", there are some important differences: * Not all of the "SET TERM" and "SHOW TERM" qualifiers are available in this utility. It is not meant to be a replacement for the DCL commands; it is meant to provide a means of managing those parameters which most directly relate to the operation of a port at the hardware level. The information below provides a detailed description of which qualifiers are supported in DIGITERM. * There are three or four (depending on whether you are running VMS version 6.x or 7.x) Digi specific qualifiers which provide special functionality above and beyond that which is available through the standard VMS interface. See the information below for details. * The output display is slightly different in order to highlight pieces of information (like the current byte size) which directly pertain to the management of a port at the Digi hardware level. DISPLAYING TERMINAL PARAMETERS To show the terminal parameters for a Digi terminal device, one may execute the following: $ MCR DIGI$DRIVER:DIGITERM SHOW Where "" is replaced with the device name of the Digi device, and "" are zero or more of the following: /OUTPUT= - Redirect output to the named file /PERMANENT - Without this qualifier, the current terminal settings are displayed. Adding this qualifier displays the default terminal settings. Sample output is provided below: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terminal: _TXB0: Device_Type: Unknown Owner: No Owner Input: 115200 Byte Size: 8 Width: 80 Parity: None Output: 115200 Page: 24 Port Speed: 115200 Digital Terminal Characteristics: No Hostsync TTsync No Eightbit No Readsync Fulldup No Modem No Hangup Set_speed No Commsync No Dialup No Disconnect Digi Terminal Characteristics: No Altpin No Fastbaud No CTSflow --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that this display is a pared down version of the "SHOW TERM" display with the following additions: * Byte Size : The current number of data bits per output character. * Port Speed : The actual bit rate used by the hardware for this port. This number might not match the input/output speeds if the Digi "FASTBAUD" qualifier is used (see below). * Digi Terminal Characteristics" : These are terminal qualifiers added by Digi and are described below. MODIFYING PORT CONFIGURATION To set some number of terminal parameters, one may execute the following: $ MCR DIGI$DRIVER:DIGITERM SET Where "" is replaced with the device name of the Digi device, and "" are zero or more of the following: /[NO]DISMISS_PARITY - Each of these qualifiers are defined /[NO]EIGHT_BIT in the same way as in "SET TERM". See /[NO]HOSTSYNC the VMS system documentation on "SET TERM" /FRAME= for details. /SPEED= /[NO]TTSYNC /[NO]PARITY= /[NO]READSYNC /PERMANENT /[NO]FULLDUP /[NO]HALFDUP /[NO]HANGUP /[NO]MODEM /[NO]SET_SPEED /[NO]DISCONNECT /[NO]DIALUP /[NO]COMMSYNC /[NO]CTSFLOW - Same as the standard "COMMSYNC" qualifier. /[NO]RTSFLOW - VMS 7.x ONLY! Enables/Disables RTS-based input flow control for the selected port. /[NO]ALTPIN - Switches the function of the DSR and DCD inputs on the interface connector, so that DCD is available when using an 8-pin RJ-45 connector instead of a 10-pin RJ-45 connector. /[NO]FASTBAUD - Alters the adapter's baud rate tables in accordance with the table below. The first column represents a VMS speed value, the second column represents the actual adapter port data rate if "NOFASTBAUD" is selected, and the third column represents the actual adapter port data rate if the "FASTBAUD" flag is turned on. Adapter Rate Adapter Rate VMS Speed NOFASTBAUD FASTBAUD --------- ------------ ------------ 50 50 57600 75 75 * 76800 110 110 115200 134 134 14400 150 150 57600 300 300 * 76800 600 600 115200 1200 1200 ** 230400 1800 1800 28800 *** 2000 ---- ------ 2400 2400 ** 460800 *** 3600 ---- ------ 4800 4800 ** 921600 *** 7200 ---- ------ 9600 9600 9600 19200 19200 19200 38400 38400 38400 57600 57600 57600 76800 * 76800 * 76800 115200 115200 115200 NOTE: * The C/X adapter family does not support 76800 bits per second. A VMS speed of 75 or 76800 will always result in 75 bps, and a speed of 300 will stay at 300 bps. ** Speeds higher that 115200 are only supported by the Xr 920 host adapter. Attempting to use these baud rates on adapters other than the Xr 920 yields undefined results. *** VMS speeds 2000, 3600, and 7200 bps are not supported by the AccelePort device driver package. 8. History 1.2.0 A new tool has been added to the AccelePort device driver package. This tool, called DIGITERM, provides an alternate mechanism to get and set terminal parameters. The syntax is very similar to the VMS standard "SHOW TERM" and "SET TERM" DCL commands, and is described in some detail at the end of this document. There are now two diskettes in the Digi VMS software package. One disk has binaries native to the 6.x VMS environment, the other has 7.x binaries in order to provide VMS 7.x support. The only feature difference between the 6.x and 7.x code is in the handling of hardware flow control. Added support for a configurable polling rate to the device driver. To modify the polling rate (after installation and configuration), change to the "DIGI$DRIVER:" directory. In that directory is a file named "SPACE.MAR". Edit this file. Towards the bottom is a specification for a variable called "EPCA_POLL_RATE". The default value is "20". Change this number to one between 1 and 10000. Save the file, then relink the driver with "DG_SETUP.COM". Then reboot. NOTE: this feature should be used sparingly, and even then, only when one is sure that it is necessary! Modifying the polling rate to be too slow will adversely affect performance, creating noticeable delays in responsiveness. Modifying the polling rate to be too high can theoretically hang a busy machine at it spends all of its time in the driver polling loop. The "control port" device now will is automatically forced to be "/NOBROADCAST" in order to help reduce the number of device errors associated with the port. The VMS 7.x driver now provides minimal support for the COMMSYNC terminal attribute for output hardware flow control. With the COMMSYNC flag turned on, output from the hardware will cease if the CTS signal is lowered. Previously, the COMMSYNC flag did nothing, and continues to do nothing (as an unsupported feature) in the 6.x specific software. With certain revisions of the Alpha C Run-Time library, the download server process would fail to run, due to the incorrect handling of "variable-with-fixed-control" formatted files. The command procedure to spawn the process now enforces a file format which is handled correctly by all patch levels of the RTL. With flow control turned off, it was possible to hang the input to a port by allowing the typeahead buffer to fill. Once full, the VMS ttdriver would send a "bell" (normal behavior with no flow control) which the Digi driver would mis-interpret as a request to stop the input. This behavior has been addressed in this revision of the device driver. Further SPINWAIT bugcheck protections were added by changing the download procedure to pause in user mode rather than kernel mode. It was possible to force the driver into an inconsistent state by executing "SET SECURITY" commands on ports which were offline. In these cases, the baud rate reported by DPA did not match that returned by "SHOW TERM". This behavior has been remedied.