LPI Linux Certification/Configure Communication Devices

Configure Communication Devices

Detailed Objective

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Description: Candidates should be able to install and configure different internal and external communication devices like modems, ISDN adapters and DSL modems.

Key knowledge area(s):
- Verification of compatibility requirements (such as the modem is not a "winmodem").
- Correctly set IRQs, DMAs and I/O Ports of the cards to avoid conflicts between devices.
- Load and configure suitable device drivers.
- Set serial port speed.
- Setup modem for outbound PPP connections.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:
- /proc/dma
- /proc/interrupts
- /proc/ioports
- setserial

I/O Ports

To list the I/O ports the system uses, print the /proc/ioports file.

$ cat /proc/ioports
0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0070-007f : rtc
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
0170-0177 : PCI device 8086:248a
0170-0177 : ide1
01f0-01f7 : PCI device 8086:248a
01f0-01f7 : ide0
02f8-02ff : serial(auto)
0376-0376 : PCI device 8086:248a
0376-0376 : ide1
0378-037a : parport0
037b-037f : parport0
03c0-03df : vesafb
03f6-03f6 : PCI device 8086:248a
03f6-03f6 : ide0

Interrupts

To list all the interrupts used by all the devices, print the /proc/interrupts file.

 $ cat /proc/interrupts
            CPU0
   0:     397517          XT-PIC  timer
   1:       7544          XT-PIC  keyboard
   2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
   5:          0          XT-PIC  usb-uhci, usb-uhci
   8:          2          XT-PIC  rtc
   10:       2024          XT-PIC  eth0, usb-uhci, PCI device
  104c:ac51, PCI device 104c:ac51, Intel ICH3
  12:      19502          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
  14:      11445          XT-PIC  ide0
  15:       2770          XT-PIC  ide1
 NMI:          0
 ERR:          0

An optimized system will not have any interrupt lines used by more than one heavily-used device.

Remember that every ISR from every device will be executed for each interrupt.

DMA

To list all the ISA DMA (Direct Memory Access) channels in-use, print out the /proc/dma file.

$ cat /proc/dma
4: cascade

PCI

To list all the devices on the pci buses, print out the /proc/pci file.

$ cat /proc/pci
PCI devices found:
 Bus  0, device   0, function  0:
   Class 0600: PCI device 8086:3575 (rev 2).
     Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0000000 [0xefffffff].
 Bus  0, device   1, function  0:
   Class 0604: PCI device 8086:3576 (rev 2).
     Master Capable.  Latency=96.  Min Gnt=12.
 Bus  0, device  29, function  0:
   Class 0c03: PCI device 8086:2482 (rev 1).
     IRQ 10.
     I/O at 0x1800 [0x181f].
 Bus  0, device  29, function  1:
   Class 0c03: PCI device 8086:2484 (rev 1).
     IRQ 5.
     I/O at 0x1820 [0x183f].
 Bus  0, device  29, function  2:
   Class 0c03: PCI device 8086:2487 (rev 1).
     IRQ 5.
     I/O at 0x1840 [0x185f].
 Bus  0, device  30, function  0:
   Class 0604: PCI device 8086:2448 (rev 65).
     Master Capable.  No bursts.  Min Gnt=4.

Exercises

Exercises results