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Serial HOWTO

David S.Lawyer dave@lafn.org original by Greg Hankins

v2.27 December 2008
This document describes the UART serial port features other than those which should be covered by Modem-HOWTO, PPP-HOWTO, Serial-Programming-HOWTO, or Text-Terminal-HOWTO. It lists info on multiport serial cards. It contains technical info about the serial port itself in more detail than found in the above HOWTOs and should be best for troubleshooting when the problem is the serial port itself. If you are dealing with a Modem, PPP (used for Internet access on a phone line), or a Text-Terminal, those HOWTOs should be consulted first. It's also useful as an introduction to how the serial port works before reading other documents on how to program it.

1. Introduction

2. Quick Help

3. How the Hardware Transfers Bytes

4. Serial Port Basics

5. Is the Serial Port Obsolete?

6. Multiport Serial Boards/Cards/Adapters

7. Servers for Serial Ports

8. Configuring Overview

9. Locating the Serial Port: IO address, IRQs

10. Configuring the Serial Driver (high-level) "stty"

11. Serial Port Devices /dev/tts/2 = /dev/ttyS2, etc.

12. Interesting Programs You Should Know About

13. Speed (Flow Rate)

14. Locking Out Others

15. Serial Communications Programs And Utilities

16. Serial Tips And Miscellany

17. Troubleshooting

18. Interrupt Problem Details

19. What Are UARTs? How Do They Affect Performance?

20. Pinout and Signals

21. Voltage Waveshapes

22. Other Serial Devices (not async RS-232)

23. Other Sources of Information

24. Appendix A: Obsolete Hardware/Software

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