Installing Boca Card Mini-HOWTODavid H.Dennis david@amazing.com Describes the basics of a Boca 16-port Serial Card (Boca 2016)
used with Linux. 2001-01-171.12001-01-17JEY1.01997-07-08DHDJoyYokleyConverted document from HTML to DocBook v4.1 (SGML)IntroductionThis HOWTO is being maintained by David H Dennis,
david@amazing.com, to try and help any other individuals who may have acquired
a BocaBoard, stared at it and found out that it didn't seem to do
anything.A very high percentage of those interested in the BocaBoard are
also interested in becoming Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If you are one
of them, please feel free to drop by my web site,
http://www.amazing.com,
and check out my Inet-Access FAQ, over 9,000 lines detailing how to hook up to
the net and how to make your Internet provider business succeed in these most
interesting times.WarningMulti-Port serial cards, such as the BocaBoard, are all but dead.
If you are in business as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you will not want
to use any of these devices, because the new 56k modem standards will not
support them. Instead, you need digital modem/terminal server combinations such
as the Livingston PM3 ent , Cisco 5200 ent or US Robotics Total
Control ent. Otherwise, you simply won't be competitive in major markets.
Users want high speeds; you won't be able to provide them with a BocaBoard or
other multi-port serial card.Even as a multi-port serial card, the BocaBoard is hopelessly
obsolete. The overwhelming majority of people who want to buy a BocaBoard would
be better off getting a accelerated card such as the Cycladesent or
Rocketportent. (When last I looked, Rocketportent was a better board,
but Cycladesent had the most stable kernel support). Accelerated cards use
less of the CPU of your machine, and so you can support more ports per computer
with less performance degradation.That being said, perhaps you own one of these devices and want to
make use of it, or perhaps you are planning an ISP based on a low-cost business
model that basically means the use of cast-off equipment from others. In that
case, the information in this document should be useful for you. But again, I
repeat: The person who buys a new BocaBoard at this point probably needs a few
more clues before starting his ISP or other venture.What do you need to install a BocaBoard?The board itself and its manualsYour Linux source tree PatienceThe Basic ProcedureRecompiling the KernelThe first step is to change your kernel so that it knows you
have a BocaBoard. Unfortunately, this is not a part of the configure script;
you must go in and modify the source by hand. In the older versions of the
kernel, this consists of putting the following line at the beginning of
linux/drivers/char/serial.c: #define CONFIG_BOCA 1As of some kernel version or another, this has changed. To make
it work with newer kernels, search for the
"BOCA_FLAGS" #define in
serial.c, and change the value to#define BOCA_FLAGS ASYNC_BOOT_AUTOCONF
You can then recompile your kernel using the instructions
included with the source tree. I recommend running the new kernel from a floppy
until you're very sure it works; otherwise, the procedure for getting back your
system is mind-numbing at best.At least to me, digging into my kernel and re-compiling it was
quite a stressful venture! Relax; as long as you copy it to a floppy, your new
kernel is completely harmless. It won't bite! Honest! :-)Installing the CardThe default address on both the card and the Linux software for
the configuration is 0x100; leave that alone. Set the IRQ on the card to Linux
default of 12. If you want to change the IRQ, you will have to search for
"BOCA_FLAGS" in the file. You will find lines like this: { BASE_BAUD, 0x100, 12, BOCA_FLAGS }, /* ttyS16
*/
{ BASE_BAUD, 0x108, 12, BOCA_FLAGS }, /* ttyS17
*/You can change the IRQ from 12 by changing the 12 to any valid
IRQ. I have not tried this, however.Telling Linux about Your CardOnce you have compiled your new kernel, switch off the machine
and install the card. Then, turn your machine on with the new kernel floppy in
the drive. If the installation succeeded, you should see all sorts of strange
stuff about 16550 UARTS being connected to ttyS16-ttyS32. The system will then
come up normally.The odds are pretty good that you don't actually have entries in
/dev for those lines. Remember that they start at 16 and go on to 32. If you
look at the source code, you'll see why; support for other cards is included in
the code for lower line numbers. Creating them is pretty simple, once you know
the trick. To create entries for dial-out lines (where you call out), type:
#mknod /dev/cuaxx c 4 Nn = 64 + {line number}. The C indicates that this is a character
mode device. For example, to create the first couple of lines on your board,
type:
#mknod /dev/cua16 c 4 80
#mknod /dev/cua17 c 4 81To create dial-in lines (where users call you), type:#mknod /dev/ttySxx c 5 nwhere N is the same as described above. For example, to create
the first couple of lines on your BocaBoard, type:#mknod /dev/ttyS16 c 5 80
#mknod /dev/ttyS17 c 5 81It is recommended that you create both dial in and dial out
lines for each port, so that you have maximum flexibility. It turns out to be
very handy to call another line of your system by activating one of your lines
as dial-out and calling your main number. I've done this already and it works
great! It's most useful for checking how things look "on the other side of the
fence"; I used it to find out how my software looked at 2400bps. (It's slower
than the Linux console. A LOT slower, in fact).Once you've finished with this, you can add entries to your
inittab file in the same way as you would for a standard ttySx entry, and the
modems or terminals should come up!Possible ProblemsIf you have problems, you may find that this is due to conflicts
between your BocaBoard and systems with dual IDE controllers. According to
Kevin Traas:Is the kernel recognising the board? (i.e. Right at the start of
the boot process, all sixteen ports should be listed on screen with ttySxx, I/O
Port, and IRQ identified.) Also,
setserial -bg ttyS* should list *every* port in
your system.By default, the BB2016 is configured to use IO Ports between
0100 and 017f. This creates problems on systems with two IDE controllers. The
second controller, ide1, uses 0170-0177 which falls into this range. Big
problems!!!So, the solution, in my cases, is to go with an IO base of 0200
through 027f. I haven't had any conflicts in this region; however, you may want
to check you system to be sure. (run
cat /proc/ioports - better run
cat /proc/interrupts to make sure IRQ 12 isn't
used either.)Once you've found an IO range and IRQ that isn't used, you'll
have to change the jumpers on the BB2016 and edit
/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/serial.c to reflect the new
settings. Then, compile the kernel and install as per normal.
Additional Information and Service Comments If you want to use your new Boca card with any standard DB-25
RS232 connector, you will have to get a special breakout box, which costs about
$80. The card itself comes with a breakout box that plugs into the card through
a truly formidable cable. It then supplies phone-like cables for the ports. The
special $80 box has phone-like cables that plug into the breakout box included
with the Boca card; you can then plug your modems or terminals into standard
RS-232 connectors on the box. Unless you actually have a system that accepts
the phone-like connectors, you should add the price of the box to the cost of
the card when comparing it to other alternatives.I got my Boca 2016 card through a special wholesale deal that I
don't think many people will be able to reproduce. It was available quickly.
However, the breakout box for RS-232 took about two weeks to ship. You should
be aware of your need for this box before you acquire the card. The 2016 board
was $235 and the additional box was $79.95.I've heard that this breakout box is no longer available, and
that now people just have special cables made. I'm not sure how you would go
about doing this, though.Only one port of my first Boca 2016 worked. I called Boca,
expecting to hear a long string of questions and advice. When they said,
"Linux? What's that?" I feared the worst. However, upon hearing my actual
problem, they cheerfully told me that the card was defective and I should send
it back; full 5-year factory warranty, 30-days exchange. I was struck by how
cheery the lady was. It was as though they were expecting the worst, and very
kindly making the most of it!I had my hardware guy exchange the card. Unfortunately, the
cards were back-ordered and they took about two more weeks to give me my new
card. I have to say that I was quite annoyed at this, since I was anxiously
chomping at the bit to get this thing up and running. Some people have problems with ports past the first eight. I
have tested my card up to port 11 and all the ports appear to be working. Boca
Research quality control may be lacking; I would recommend that people with
troubles with the card call Boca and deal with them directly. I suspect that if
I'd exchanged the card directly through the factory I would have had better
service than through my dealer. The factory people were all quite nice and
eager to please.Right now, I have only four phone lines. I bought the 16-port
card for two reasons: because it has modem control (unlike the smaller ones),
and in anticipation of future expansion. Some additional information on this subject from Kevin Traas of
Baan Business Systemsent: BTW, I've used the BB2016 several times and found them to work
really well under Linux. I'm extremely happy with them. They perform very well,
are very inexpensive, and are reliable. They claim 115200 bps per port. I've
got a unique situation whereby I've got two systems with a PPP serial link
between them. I'm running this link at 115200 and I experience almost 0% error
rate (with hundreds of thousands of packets transmitted). My next step is to
implement EQL and additional PPP links between the boxes to increase the
bandwidth. We'll see how it goes.One final note. Contrary to the suggestion in the HOWTO, I
build my own cables for the BB2016 (they've got RJ ports on them). At first, I
"dabbled" with RJ45-8 conductor plugs, but the BB2016 has RJ48-10 conductor
jacks, so to get full modem support, I ended up going that route.I now run all 10 wires between the BB2016 and my modems. It
works great! No problems, no regrets! The only initial problem I had was
finding a source for RJ48 plugs, 10 conductor wire, and RJ48 to DB25
adapters. None of these are very cheap due to the low demand. Oh, yeah, and
you need an RJ48 crimper as well.If you want, I can build these cables for you and send them
to you. If you're interested, e-mail me and I'll let you know pricing, etc. I
found building my own was cheaper than the adapter that is mentioned in the
HOWTO - which I couldn't find a source for anyway.
I believe the adapter mentioned in this document is no longer
being manufacturered, leaving cables such as your own the only remaining way of
connecting the device.AcknowledgementsKevin Traas has issued a helpful update to this FAQ that contains a
major correction to the information on
mknod. He is also standing in as a new source for
cables for the device.The information here was obtained by begging many people for help.
Unfortunately, I have forgotten their names due to a pressing need for disk
space on my Netcom account. :-( Nonetheless, I thank them very much for their
assistance when things looked blackest. This is my way of paying some of that
back.