On my net5501 I get double characters and corruption on the freebsd boot
loader and boot menu, however once the actual freebsd kernel starts it
all works properly.
wierd

regards, Philip

On 05/06/12 08:32, Mouse wrote:
>>>> 3.  Scrambled: many high-bit characters
>>> is a given character either always corrupted or never corrupted?
>> I appreciate the help, Mouse.  Unfortunately, the answer is No.  :-(
> 
> Oh well, it was a nice theory while it lasted. :/
> 
>>> s\000\332ow\000LX\000\000\264\233\000\000n\000\000\262 = 9600\015
>> ConLock = Enabled\015
>> ConMute = Disabled\015
>> [...rest of output looks good...]
>> \015
> 
>> Note that the first letters of the output from the "show" command --
>> "Speed", I think -- are garbled.  After that it's clear.  The "h" in
>> "show" is ruined, but OK in "ShowPCI".
> 
> This looks to me as though output is corrupted in the presence of input
> occurring at the same time.  Does the speed with which you type "show"
> matter?  For example, if you do it manually versus pasting it, does it
> affect the syndrome?  Looking at the bit patterns from what you quote,
> there are some tantalizing similarities between what you got and what
> should be there, but I haven't formed a coherent theory for them.
> 
> While it's a very vague feeling, this feels to me like a ground bounce
> issue or some such.  If you have a 'scope, I'd be inclined to put it
> across power and see what you get.  Another thing that might be worth
> scoping out is the difference between shield ground and signal ground.
> It also might be worth trying shorting the Soekris's ground to the
> other computer's ground with a separate wire - the Soekris's power
> supply probably provides reasonably good isolation from mains ground,
> whereas most desktops deliberately earth the case and many power
> supplies also earth the 0V line as well.  I'm thinking the difference
> between desktop<->desktop and desktop<->Soekris could be that the
> desktops have a fairly low-impedance path between their grounds because
> they're both connected to mains earth.
> 
> Of course, it could also be that something's fried in the serial port
> circuitry, too, though I have trouble thinking of a plausible fault
> that would produce perfectly clear output when no input is occurring.
> Perhaps one of the power rails isn't reaching the serial chip, and,
> provided the input pin is at mark, it powers the chip through the
> protection diodes?  I actually had something similar occur in a circuit
> I'd built; it could lead to corruption of output only when input is
> also occurring - and, because it's affecting the output driver and
> nothing else, explains the "input characters work" part.
> 
> Looking at "show"'s bits, I note...
> 
> s 01110011
> h 01101000
> o 01101111
> w 01110111
> 
> ...that the three characters that worked have a lot of 1 bits (the same
> voltage level as an idle line), and that the characters that got
> corrupted occurred when characters with relatively long periods of 0s
> (h, \n, and/or \r) were being sent, or had recently been sent.  (I'm
> assuming the "show" was manually typed, so there's substantial delay
> between the h and the o.)
> 
> If you have some way to generate output over a significant time, do you
> get clear output with nothing but signal ground and the
> Soekris->desktop data line connected (in particular, no desktop-driven
> lines connected)?  Do you have any other desktop-driven lines which are
> driven to the same level as an idle data line connected?
> 
> (I realize that some/all of these may not be easy for you to test....)
> 
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