I recently got an ex-demo IBM Thinkpad 600x PIII/500/128MB with 
3com589D, Lucent winmodem, and 12GB hard disk, and a license for 
win2k-pro (to demo samba with ...) for a decent price (1/2 to 1/3 of a 
new Dell laptop, depending on the model of Dell ...).

Surprisingly, I am having a lot of trouble getting the serial port going 
(I have compiled the tpctl utilities, and the thinkpad kernel modules). 
The winmodem was trivial to setup (build an RPM for ltmodem, install it, 
and minicom dials ...), and everything else worked out-the-box.

I need the serial port quite urgently for my thesis project (comms with 
a GPS interfacing with grass GIS system), and for my digital camera. 
Normal "works in windows (2k Pro)" comment applies.

I am prepared to do a bit of work to get this working better out the box 
(later, when I have time), if I can just get the serial port working now 
(otherwise, I will have lots of free time next year while completing my 
thesis ...).

So, if there is anyone else out there that has a Thinkpad 600x, maybe we 
can get this thing working.

I get this in dmesg from boot (I assume):

thinkpad: I have registered to handle major: 10 minor: 170.
superio: Super I/O chip (non-virgin) in plug-n-play mode found at port 
base 0x2e. :-)
superio: I/O ports for Super I/O chip not available, but ignoring this.
thinkpadpm: Found APM BIOS version 1.2 flags 0x03 entry 0x48:0x0. :-)

And, I get this whenever I try and configure the serial port using 
'tpctl --rs$X=irq$Y --rsX=0x$ZZZ', where $X=(1|2), $Y=(3|4), 
$ZZZ=(0x3f8|0x2f8|0x2e8 etc).

The method of getting this to work isn't clear, even though there are 
examples. I have just been trying to match the settings 'tpctl --rs$X' 
give with those setserial /dev/tts/$(($X-1)) give.

It's times like this when harddrake appears to need more work (no 
category for serial ports yet ...)

Buchan

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Buchan Milne                Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager
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