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From: papa@bacall.UUCP (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Help for weird error with serial port! (again)
Message-ID: <2123@bacall.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Jun-86 21:15:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: bacall.2123
Posted: Thu Jun 26 21:15:58 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jun-86 07:26:17 EDT
References: <8606240036.AA09038@pavepaws>
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 47

> 
> 	Sounds like you didn't initialize your XON-XOFF characters.  One
> of them is probably zero.  This would cause the symptoms you described (
> being able to receive characters but not being able to send characters).
> 
> 	Note that you must be sure to re-set the SERF_XDISABLED bit set
> in the serial flags before the open (and make sure it's the bit is set
> everytime you do a SDCMD_SETPARAMS to.  
> 
> 	Check the return code for SDCMD_SETPARAMS to make sure it actually
> set the parameters.  If it gives an error, you did not initialize one of
> the parameters correctly. 
> 
> 				-Matt

Sorry, Matt, but I believe the original report was right.  I reported the
bug with the serial device a while ago. Anybody that has more info can
refer to my report number when contacting Commodore-Amiga:

Serial device problem: # B2926

I have seen this with my own terminal program, A-Talk, with Maxicomm, and
with Online!.  The problem appears only when using X-on/X-off.  I believe
that all three programs set up correctly the X-on/X-off characters:

11130000

I could not easily reproduce the problem. One way is to connect to noisy
lines, or to a switch (like a micom).  While in the initial connection,
the host does not know the baud rate, and garbage appears.  A short burst
of data, possibly containing a NULL (but I am not sure about it), will
lock the program. Note that I (and I believe the other programs also) do
not do any busy wait. Just SendIO, which should always return. Instead the
serial device locks the program, and if one tries to access menus, all the 
messages are queued, but not serviced.  If one then connects the cable to an
IBM PC in the same room where the Amiga is, and then types a ^Q (CTRL-Q),
all of a sudden everything comes alive, and all the queued messages are
serviced in short sequence.  Of course, if you do not have a way to send a ^Q
(and few people have two machines in the same room), the only solution is to 
reboot.  All other programs will still work properly.  There is no problem
if X-on/X-off is not active.  The bug is also present in WB 1.2 Beta2.
This bug is very annoying for terminal program writers and users, so if you
have any more insights on this, please send your bug report to Commodore-
-Amiga and refer to the above bug report number.

Marco Papa
Felsina Software