[OT-ish] diagnosing serial port functionality?

[Matt Price]

Hi folks,

I'm having lots of trouble syncing my Palm V to my new, fast computer
(ASUS A8N-SLI MoBo, amd 380+ dual-core cpu).  Usually I use a
serial-to-usb adaptor to connect my serial-out cradle to my computer,
but I'm beginning to think there's some hardware problem with the
adaptor (the data it sends tends to crash the usb modules).  SO I want
to hook up directly via the serial port.  On my laptop this method
seems to work (e.g., pilot-link -p /dev/ttyS0 -l is successful).
However on my new desktop I get no data coming out of /dev/ttyS0 (cat
/dev/ttyS0 produces no output).  The serial setup on this board is
wierd -- I have to plug a serial adaptor into a spot on the mainboard,
and attach it to one of the slots in the case.  I wonder
whetherthere's any wayto test whether it's attached correctly?  THe
/dev/ttyS0 device is created and gives no errors when I try to cat it
(unlike /dev/tty/S1+), but again, no data comes through when I attach
the palm pilot & press hotsync.

thanks for any advice you got!

matt



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 .''`.       Matt Price 
: :'  :      Debian User
`. `'` 	     & hemi-geek
  `-     
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