efax- Warning: /dev/ttyS0 locked or busy - waiting

[John Hagerman]

Binary package hint: ubuntu-docs

ubuntu 9.10amd64 using kernel 2.6.31-14 on x86/x86_64 has something loading at boot which takes over ttyS0 and normally refuses to release it for use by efax.
In 9.04, efax worked perfectly with a USR5610 modem with a driver converted from Red Hat by debian. This problem arrived with the 9.10 upgrade.
Note there have been three occasions in the past month when ttyS0 HAS been released and, in those rare instances, efax has worked perfectly. Unfortunately, on each occasion reboot has returned the "locked or busy" situation.
If I could find the guilty package I could perhaps modify or remove it, but I have had no luck in the hunt.

Jack

[Jim Campbell (jwcampbell)]

This isn't a documentation-related bug, so I've assigned this to the efax-gtk package.

[John Hagerman (handj949)]

Jim Campbell wrote:
> This isn't a documentation-related bug, so I've assigned this to the
> efax-gtk package.
>
> ** Package changed: ubuntu-docs (Ubuntu) => efax-gtk (Ubuntu)
>
>
I beg to differ - this is NOT an efax bug - it is a bug elsewhere which
has an effect on efax. It may also have other effects elsewhere.
Would this item from the Debug log help?

Dec 2 12:26:02 dynamic-160 kernel: [ 17.900808] alloc kstat_irqs on
node 0
Dec 2 12:26:04 dynamic-160 modem-manager: (ttyS0): probe requested by
plugin 'Generic'
Dec 2 12:26:05 dynamic-160 ntpd[1691]: signal_no_reset: signal 17 had
flags 4000000

or this, from the daemon log?

ugin-Ifupdown: (32744544) ... get_connections (managed=false): return
empty list.
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Sierra
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Novatel
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Ericsson MBM
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin ZTE
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Option
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Gobi
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Option High-Speed
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin MotoC
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Nokia
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Generic
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Loaded plugin Huawei
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: (ttyS0) opening serial device...
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 modem-manager: (ttyS0): probe requested by
plugin 'Generic'
Nov 29 16:13:37 dynamic-160 NetworkManager: Ifupdown: get unmanaged
devices count: 0

Or
any of this, also from the daemon log?

Dec 2 12:26:07 dynamic-160 NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth0)
successful, device activated.
Dec 2 12:26:07 dynamic-160 NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth0)
Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
Dec 2 12:26:07 dynamic-160 acpid: client connected from 1515[0:0]
Dec 2 12:26:08 dynamic-160 ntpd[1664]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
Dec 2 12:26:08 dynamic-160 modem-manager: Got failure code 100: Unknown
error
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpdate[2121]: adjust time server
91.189.94.4 offset 0.403379 sec
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2158]: ntpd 4.2.4p6@1.1549-o Fri Oct 23
04:31:46 UTC 2009 (1)
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: precision = 1.000 usec
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #0
wildcard, 0.0.0.0#123 Disabled
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #1
wildcard, ::#123 Disabled
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #2 lo,
::1#123 Enabled
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #3 eth0,
fe80::224:1dff:fe1f:8844#123 Enabled
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #4 lo,
127.0.0.1#123 Enabled
Dec 2 12:26:09 dynamic-160 ntpd[2159]: Listening on interface #5 eth0,
96.52.37.161#123 Enabled

Jack

[Evan Nemerson (nemequ)]

It's most likely modem-manager. `sudo lsof | grep ttyS0` should tell you for sure.

[John Hagerman (handj949)]

nemequ wrote:
> It's most likely modem-manager. `sudo lsof | grep ttyS0` should tell you
> for sure.
>
>
I suspect that's true, but a problem I have installing the new GRUB has
shut me out of my main rig temporarily (a problem of my own making,too!)
When I get the old box back up I'll have a look.

Jack

[Ignacio Vicario (ignaciovicario-ya)]

I have that problem when I try to send faxes with KdeprintFax configured to use efax. I have removed modem-manager and the problem still persist. The problem might be the file /var/lock/LCK..ttyS1 If I remove that file, KdeprintFax (I supose it is actually efax that does it) creates it again when trying to send the fax again.

[John Hagerman (handj949)]

Ignacio Vicario wrote:
> I have that problem when I try to send faxes with KdeprintFax configured
> to use efax. I have removed modem-manager and the problem still persist.
> The problem might be the file /var/lock/LCK..ttyS1 If I remove that
> file, KdeprintFax (I supose it is actually efax that does it) creates it
> again when trying to send the fax again.
>
>
I'm sorry, I don't use KdeprintFax, so I can't directly address your
problem.
However, I wonder how you removed ModemManager. If you used Synaptic to
be sure to also remove all the ModemManager configuration files, it
should work.

[Ignacio Vicario (ignaciovicario-ya)]

Thank you for your answer, John. After removing ModemManager's configuration files with synaptic, the problem still persist. To avoid the use of KdeprintFax, I used this command in a console:
/usr/bin/fax DEV='ttyS1' PAGE='a4' send 'XXXXXXXXX' 'fax.ps'
Where "XXXXXXXXX" is the fax number and fax.ps is a postscript file. The problem is the same.

[Ignacio Vicario (ignaciovicario-ya)]

Update: After restarting Linux the problem is solved. Thanks a lot for the workaround!