How is serial port supported in 2.4 and 2.6 kernels? 1

[wilville]

Hi, All-

A question about serial port support in the 2.4 and 2.6 series kernels ... I would not think it is unique to a distribution, but to a kernel, but for the record I am interested in Red Hat Enterprise 3 and 4 and in Fedora core 4 and 5. I assume that the support for serial ports is totally self contained in the kernel as it is for disks and that BIOS code is not used in driving these ports. If so, I should not have to care about BIOS settings for these ports. Can someone confirm or dispel that notion for me? Yes, I suppose I should read the code to find out, but while admittedly interesting, I have a bigger fish to fry here.

Thanks a bunch!!

Wilville

 

[pansophic]

BIOS code is involved in any on-board serial ports that you may have, since those ports can be enabled, moved or disabled through BIOS. BIOS would not affect any USB serial dongles that you may be using. I believe that there isn't BIOS implications on PCI-based serial cards either, like Digi-boards or Equinox multi-port serial cards.


pansophic

 

[wilville]

Aha! This would explain the behviour I have seen and the confusion I had.

Thanks!!!

Wilville
"Chinese fortune cookie says 'All things are difficult before they are easy. You will overcome obstacles to achieve success. '. Ah, so!