Serial ports on HP NC6000 and NW8000 don't work

[Dirk]

when I try to use the port, I get
{dirk@wanchai}[/home/dirk]echo blahblah > /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0: No such device.

during boot up, there is a message
udevd-event[3057]: wait_for_sysfs: waiting for: '/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio3/serio5/bus' failed

This was observed on HP NC6000 and NW8000. In both
cases, the problem shows only in Edgy.
Dapper is ok.

see here for more details:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+ticket/2622

[Andrei Vereha (andreidid)]

I have the same problem.

[Dirk (rptq)]

This time I used GtkTerm to try out the serial port of my HP NC6000:
- booted from Dapper live CD: /dev/ttyS0 works ok
- booted Edgy installation: Error /dev/ttyS0: No such device
- booted from Feisty Herd 2 live CD: same error

[Marcantonio (marcantonio)]

Just wanted to post some more info. I had the same issue with a nc6000 and nw8000, however, I now have a nw8440 and the serial port works fine in Edgy.

I also noticed that dmesg doesn't have the "ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!" error anymore.

Sorry I don't have more.

Marc

[Paulus (donmatteo)]

I have the same problem, on a Medion notebook: Often, serial ports don't work. In these cases the error "ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!" shows up in the kernel log, and I get "no souch device". This is pretty serious if you only have dialup.

[Jose Ulloa S (julloas)]

Hi, i had the same problem.
I had remove setserial --> sudo apt-get remove setserial
Then, reboot my PC and ttyS0 works fine.

[Dirk (rptq)]

Unfortunately, I can't confirm that. Removing setserial and rebooting didn't change anything on my machine. The udevd-event is still coming up during boot up and the serial port still doesn't work.

By the way, when I boot from the Feisty release CD, it's the same thing as with the Herds I tried earlier: serial port doesn't work.

[Eckhart (eckhbeck)]

Switching off the infrared port in the BIOS helped me getting the serial port working in Ubuntu again. Maybe that will do the job for you as well

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

Dirk,

I am running into the same problem on an nc6000 in feisty. When you boot from the dapper live CD, what is the output of setserial -a for each of the potential serial ports (ttyS0 through ttyS3)? Perhaps the more recent kernels are misdetecting the IRQ/io ports for the HP's serial ports.

[Dirk (rptq)]

Hey Matthew,

Below is the output from Dapper Live CD. If I do that in Edgy, I get the same. (Haven't upgraded the laptop to Feisty yet)

/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
        Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
        closing_wait: 3000
        Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS1, Line 1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3
        Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
        closing_wait: 3000
        Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS2, Line 2, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03e8, IRQ: 4
        Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
        closing_wait: 3000
        Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS3, Line 3, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02e8, IRQ: 3
        Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
        closing_wait: 3000
        Flags: spd_normal

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

Dirk, I've found that my laptop's serial ports are actually ISA-PNP ports off an LPC bridge. On my system, they appear in /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02. I've attached the output from an ls and some cat commands. Could you please do the same in dapper to see if there are any obvious differences?

thanks,
Matt

[Dirk (rptq)]

Bon soir,

Checked in my Edgy install: same as on your machine
Checked in Dapper booted from CD: the only difference is that /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02/subsystem is missing

dirk

P.S. I buy you a couple Boreal Rousse when (a) you fix this and (b) I'm back to my other home in the Ghetto. ;-)

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

Dirk,

I MAY have figured out a work-around. Try the following and see if it fixes your problem. I am not sure why this problem occurs, but disabling and then re-enabling the PNP serial port seems to correctly initialize it. For some reason the newer kernels aren't correctly enabling our serial ports. I couldn't see a reason after a look through the two sets of kernel sources (dapper and feisty).

- cd /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02
- confirm that PNP device 00:02 is your serial port by doing a cat on "resources". It should show the standard ttyS0 serial port stuff with io ports starting at 3f8 and IRQ 4
- disable this device by "echo -n 2 > power/state"
- re-enable this device by "echo -n 0 > power/state"

Matt

[Dirk (rptq)]

Hey Matt,

Don't know what's going on with my machine. Here is what I have right now:

Booted Dapper CD and tried "echo blah > /dev/ttyS0" and I'm getting "Device or Resource Busy".

Booted Edgy HD, tried the echo and get "No such device". Then I do the power off/on you described, try the echo again, then it takes half a minute until that command is done, but nothing on the port.

Booted Feisty CD, tried the echo and get "No such device". Then I do the power off/on you described, try the echo again, and get an immediate "Device or Resource Busy".

Booted DSL 3.3 CD with kernel 2.4.26, tried the echo and it works fine. So, at least there's no physical problem with the port. Previously, the Dapper CD also worked...

  dirk

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

Dirk,

Try using a program like minicom to access the serial port. If you haven't used minicom before, run "sudo minicom -s" to set up the port parameters like port name, baudrate, framing and flow control.

Another thing to check is the existance of a ttyS0 lock file in /var/lock. It should be called /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0. At least, that's what's created on my machine when minicom is accessing the serial port. The contents of this file should contain information about the process that holds the lock.

The PNP disable/enable trick works for me. I now have a fully operational serial port. As I said, I do not know why the serial port isn't being correctly setup on boot, so if my work-around doesn't work for you, there's not much that I can do to help.

Matt

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

Here's a shell script that accomplishes the work-around. Testing status of the script is "works for me". Instructions for adding the script to a system are within the script itself.

[logunn (riku-nevala)]

I can confirm, REMOVING SETSERIAL AND BOOTING worked for me. Maybe just booting might have fixed the problem.

[Torsten Jerzembeck (toje)]

Hi everyone,

I can confirm this problem with a HP nx5000 laptop. The "bounce method" mentioned seems to fix the problem for me, however it is a bit annoying that the serial port is noch initialized correctly on boot. I'm on Feisty with kernel 2.6.20-16-generic.

[Dennis Krul (launchpad-themirror)]

I also have a HP nx5000 laptop and experiencing the same issue. I'm currently running Gutsy (latest updates installed).
After removing setserial and running Matthew's bounce script it worked for me!

[Everton da Silva Marques (everton-marques)]

I have an IBM ThinkPad A22m yielding a similar issue,
the serial port does not respond under Gutsy.
Kernel is 2.6.22-14-generic.

I tried to remove setserial and reboot, then ran the
serial port boucing script, but no luck.

The port works fine under Windows 2000.

Please advise.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the extremely delayed response here. I wanted to let you know the 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task. However, Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . You should be able to test your bug using the Hardy LiveCD. If the issue still exists, please add the Hardy kernel "linux" task to the bug report. This can be done by clicking on the "Also affects distribution" link in the Actions area on left hand side of the bug report. Select "Ubuntu" as the Distribution and type in "linux" for the Source Package Name. Thanks.

[Lukav (lukav)]

The bug still exists with the new Hardy version, unfortunately the bouncing script that worked for me in Gutsy, now doesn't work :(
It seams that the state file is missing:
$ /sbin/bouncepnpserial
found serial port at /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02, going to bounce it
/sbin/bouncepnpserial: 23: cannot create /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02/power/state: Directory nonexistent
/sbin/bouncepnpserial: 23: cannot create /sys/bus/pnp/devices/00:02/power/state: Directory nonexistent

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks Lukav,

Per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following information. Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment.

* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

[Lukav (lukav)]

I wasn't sure if I should post the files here or report a new bug in kernel.org ... so ...

[Paulg (paulg087)]

I'm also still having problems in Hardy with an NC600.

[AlexTG (ajberry)]

Same problem on a Dell Precision 690

[AlexTG (ajberry)]

Same problem on a Dell Precision 690

/proc/version_signature =
"Ubuntu 2.6.24-18.32-generic"

[AlexTG (ajberry)]

Same problem on a Dell Precision 690
I am running in AMD64

[mavrusha (mavrusha)]

On HP NC6000 disabling infrared in BIOS solve this trouble (Ubuntu 8.04 i386). ttyS0 now work. I think there are some conflict in this model...

[Lukav (lukav)]

The same workaround works on HP Compaq nw8000. If I disable the infrared from the BIOS the serial works fine.

[Tim Grotheer (tgrotheer)]

I can confirm two work-arounds for this problem. For what it's worth, I'm running Debian Etch r3 (4.0r3).

1. Serial port works after disabling IR in BIOS
2. Matthew Williams' 'bounce' procedure from above works on my NC6000 also-- though I've only done it manually, i.e. I have not attempted to run his script

Might this indicate the problem is related more to the kernel than to the Ubuntu distro?

[Sean Feole (sfeole)]

I have a compq nc6000 same issue, i disabled the infrared port in the BIOS and that fixed the issue right away.. For those who wonder what the Infrared port is... it was used to talk to measuring devices, and some medical devices so you will never every use it ;) unless your in the medical field..

-Sean

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Karoliina Salminen (karoliina-t-salminen)]

I have the same problem on Ubuntu Hardy and Lenovo Thinkpad T61p.

I need to use the serial cable to do my work, but minicom exits before displaying anything and says that device /dev/ttyS0 disappeared.
dmesg prints the following:
[435438.377880] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435446.329923] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435451.910779] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435491.125893] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435523.079404] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435527.553299] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!
[435538.246438] ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!

This is not only annoying but it seriously blocks me from using the serial cable which I would need right now very badly. I will try if I disabling IR works on this machine too, but I would hope this gets fixed in the Hardy kernel too.

[noah dain (noahdain)]

Thinkpad T61 running 8.04 with the serial+parallel adapter for the ultrabay-slim (pass through connectors to the mainboard's 8250 serial adapter).

After boot, the serial port works. However, after a suspend resume it disappears and the kernel emits "ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged!".

workaround: boot with the kernel option: pnpacpi=off

misc notes, hints, and guesswork:
- Looking at my udev log, I saw that the 8250 serial port is detected and activated. And right after that, the pnp code detected and activated the serial port again. Hmmnn...

'''
UEVENT[1227045158.127887] add /bus/platform/drivers/serial8250 (drivers)
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/bus/platform/drivers/serial8250
SUBSYSTEM=drivers
SEQNUM=1893

UEVENT[1227045158.127898] add /bus/pnp (bus)
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/bus/pnp
SUBSYSTEM=bus
SEQNUM=1894

UEVENT[1227045158.127904] add /bus/pnp/drivers/serial (drivers)
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/bus/pnp/drivers/serial
SUBSYSTEM=drivers
SEQNUM=1895
'''

- After disabling pnpacpi the "/sys/bus/pnp/devices/" node is empty, but "/sys/bus/platform/devices/serial8250/tty/" is populated.

- Also, my lspci shows an LPC bus via ISA bridge as someone else noted above:
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Triaged a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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[Elbarbudo (patricearnal)]

TTYS0 does not work on my NC6000 / Ubuntu 10.04, updated today.

When I try to use /dev/ttyS0, I get a "no such device" answer and an "ttyS0 LSR safety check engaged" in syslog.

I DO need the infrared port to connect my mobile phone (an old one, without bluetooth, but working fine).
So I can't use the workaround mentioned above.

[Elbarbudo (patricearnal)]

Problem is still present in Ubuntu 10.10

[Sean Feole (sfeole)]

PArnal: disable the infrared port in the Bios. Most mobile phones connect via USB or Bluetooth

[stomarti (stomarti)]

ttyS0 not working on my Toshiba Satellite 1805-S203 / Ubuntu 11.04 / Solution

ttyS0: LSR safety check engaged

Looking around I found the following message by Marc Haber on lkml.org:

The issue was udev loading smsc_ircc2. As soon as smsc_ircc2 is
loaded, the serial port shows the behavior listed above. Unloading the
module does not help, a reboot is needed.

http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/11/21/90

Blacklisting smsc_ircc2 module on Ubuntu 11.04 solved the problem here.

[Martin Hejnfelt (mh-newtec)]

Blacklisting the smsc-ircc2 module in Ubuntu 10.04 on my nx5000 worked for me, thank you :)

[jervin (jervin)]

How does one Blacklist smsc-ircc2

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Dirk, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]