Re: [gentoo-user] ftdi usb-serial converter broken

[Alan McKinnon]

On Monday 28 April 2008, James wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've been using FTDI's usb-serial converters for a few years now with
> great success.

I use one of those gadgets. Wonderful devices, they always 
JustWorked(tm)

> I have not used minicom in a month or so and now it's broken
> on all(3) of the laptops where it use to work. I have googled
> for a while today, with not luck on this issue.
>
> It the /etc/minicom/minirc.dfl used to use
> /dev/ttyUSB0  on several machines.
>
> Now I get:  nu such file or directory.
>
> CD into /dev and sure enough ttyUSB0 nore ttyUSB* is not there
> so this is at least a udev issue?

No, it's done by the driver and udev just goes along with what the 
driver creates. My specs:

alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ uname -a
Linux nazgul 2.6.24-gentoo-r4 #2 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 7 18:40:36 SAST 
2008 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel 
GNU/Linux

Plugging in the device gives me this from dmesg:
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110152.957575] usb 3-1: new full speed USB 
device using uhci_hcd and address 5
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.078246] usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen 
from 1 choice
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.124828] usbcore: registered new interface 
driver usbserial
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.124855] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: 
USB Serial support registered for generic
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.124903] usbcore: registered new interface 
driver usbserial_generic
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.124906] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: 
USB Serial Driver core
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.136853] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: 
USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.136903] ftdi_sio 3-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial 
Device converter detected
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.136939] drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c: 
Detected FT232RL
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.137035] usb 3-1: FTDI USB Serial Device 
converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.137050] usbcore: registered new interface 
driver ftdi_sio
Apr 28 23:44:04 nazgul [110153.137053] drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c: 
v1.4.3:USB FTDI Serial Converters Driver

and I get this device node created automagically:
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ ls -al /dev/ttyU*
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 188, 0 2008-04-28 23:44 /dev/ttyUSB0

There are no specific udev rules as shown by:
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ grep -ir usb * | grep tty
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ grep -ir tty * | grep usb
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ grep -ir ftdi *
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $ grep -ir 188 *
alan@nazgul /etc/udev/rules.d $

> Also, I went to rebuild the gentoo-2.6.24-r4 kernel and could not
> locate the driver item for ftdi (maybe it has been combined into
> a mega driver or such?

It's where it's always been :-)

Device Drivers -> USB support -> USB Serial Converter support -> USB 
FTDI Single Port Serial Driver (EXPERIMENTAL)

I had no trouble finding it when I built this kernel so I assume it 
didn't move. The driver's dependencies:

Symbol: USB_SERIAL_FTDI_SIO [=m]  
Prompt: USB FTDI Single Port Serial Driver (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Defined at drivers/usb/serial/Kconfig:167
  Depends on: USB_SUPPORT && USB!=n && USB_SERIAL && EXPERIMENTAL


Maybe you forgot to configure EXPERIMENTAL=Y ?

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

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