> I have connected the Tx of the serial cable on the RX in order to make a loop.
> When I write on the keyboards, nothing come back on screen.
The loopback test should work. Try linking DSR to DTR and RTS to CTS.
Is Minicom pointing at the correct device file (/dev/ttyS0, that is S-zero, not S-
oh, assuming you're using com1:)?
Older versions of Linux use /dev/cua0, I am unsure about the difference, try
both. I seem to recall having to create the device file first time...have a look
on the Slackware CD for the serial ports FAQ. Read the minicom man pages
('info minicom' , 'man minicom' etc).
Check your screen at bootup time to make sure the serial port is detected
and made available by the operating system. (see log files in /var/log)
Make sure the serial port hasn't been taken by another process (DOSemu,
AX25 deamon started automatically at boot time)
Check the minicom RPM to see if it needs other services. I have a vague
recollection it needs SLIP.
A lot of Linux aapplications are normally silent, but can be made to log error
events. Perhaps minicom can, too (check man page). Turn it on and
scrutinise the error log.
Once you get this going, get rid of software flow control and put together a
full hardware handshaking cable, enabling hardware flow control at both ends
(PC and TNC). Whilst software flow control may often appear to be working,
it is very much second choice.
Something else again: for some strange reason all the TAPR EPROMs I
have used default to 7 bit serial comms, which is no good if you want to do
binary transfers. From memory, set AWLEN=8 and do a RESTART.
Hope this helps...
Wilbert ZL2BSJ.
