ISA 8-port and 128-port Asynchronous Adapter Configuration

About this document
Setting the jumpers on the ISA adapter card
Installing the device driver
Defining the adapter to AIX
Verifying the availability of the adapter

About this document

This document describes the procedure for configuring an ISA 8-port or 128-port asynchronous (async) adapter. These procedures apply only to AIX Versions 4.x systems with ISA buses.

Configuring an ISA async adapter requires four main steps:

Setting the jumpers on the ISA adapter card

NOTE: If you choose to skip this step and instead try to guess the jumper settings when you define the adapter to AIX, try to define the default setting first.

ISA adapter I/O addressing is performed by positioning jumper switches on the card. The following diagram illustrates the various addresses and their corresponding jumper settings:

    PCXR  ISA 8-PORT ADAPTER JUMPER SETTINGS 
 /============================================\ 
 | Hex Addr   |         Address Switch        | 
 \============|===============================/ 
 |            |   1   |   2   |   3   |   4   |  ON  =  DOWN 
 |------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|  OFF =  UP 
 |   104      |  Off  |  Off  |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   114      |  Off  |  On   |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   124      |  Off  |  On   |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   204      |  On   |  Off  |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   224      |  On   |  Off  |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   304      |  On   |  On   |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   324      |  On   |  On   |  On   |  On   | <-- DEFAULT SETTING 
 \============================================/ 
   CXIA  ISA 128-PORT ADAPTER JUMPER SETTINGS 
 /============================================\ 
 | Hex Addr   |         Address Switch        | 
 \============|===============================/ 
 |            |   1   |   2   |   3   |   4   |  ON  =  DOWN 
 |------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|  OFF =  UP 
 |   108      |  Off  |  Off  |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   118      |  Off  |  On   |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   128      |  Off  |  On   |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   208      |  On   |  Off  |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   228      |  On   |  Off  |  On   |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   308      |  On   |  On   |  Off  |  On   | 
 |____________|_______|_______|_______|_______| 
 |   328      |  On   |  On   |  On   |  On   | <-- DEFAULT SETTING 
 \============================================/

Installing the device driver

ISA cards, unlike cards using the MCA design, are not automatically detectable. ISA cards are not usable until the appropriate driver and its associated filesets are installed.

Use the same set of files for both the ISA 8-port and the ISA 128-port cards.

Check for the needed files using the following command, valid for both AIX 4.1.x and 4.2.x:

    lslpp -h devices.isa.cxia*

If the complete set is installed, the preceding command will return the following:

    devices.isa.cxia.rte 
    devices.isa.cxia.ucode 
    devices.isa.cxia.diag

To install missing filesets, enter:

    smit install_selectable_all

Use the List and Help capabilities within SMIT.

After installation, verify the presence of the necessary filesets as described above.

Defining the adapter to AIX

ISA adapters cannot be automatically detected by AIX. They must be specially defined to the system.

Before defining the adapter to AIX, determine the current bus allocation. Enter:

    lsdev -C |grep isa

This will return current ISA adapter configurations. To avoid conflicts, note the bus location of any device information returned. Where the first two digits of the four-digit, hyphen-separated number are 01, bus1 is indicated by making this location unavailable unless the device configuration is removed.

Define the 8-port or 128-port card using SMIT:

Enter smit isa .
Select Add an ISA adapter .
Select the appropriate adapter type:
for the ISA 8-port card select pcxr,
for the ISA 128-port card select cxia.
Determine the bus.
Select bus# Available ISA Bus from the SMIT pop-up menu. Select the bus I/O address matching the jumper settings on the ISA adapter card. For a 128-port cxia card, it may be necessary to set other parameters such as line speed and node comm mode.

If an address not matching the settings of the card jumper switches was selected, the following message will be displayed:

        sa# Defined 
        Method error (/usr/lib/methods/cfgcxma): 
                0514-040 Error initializing a device into the kernel. 
        sa# deleted

If the bus I/O address chosen is in conflict with the parameter setting of a previously installed ISA adapter, the following message will be displayed:

    sa# Defined 
    lsresource : The attribute(s) for some device(s) in the system 
    could not be resolved.  To resolve conflicts, attribute(s) need 
    to be modified.  A suggested value for each attribute is provided 
    DEVICE     ATTRIBUTE     CURRENT   SUGGESTED   DESCRIPTION 
   ---------  ------------  --------  ----------  ----------------- 
    sa#        bus_io_addr   0x324     0x304       Connection Address 
    Method error (/usr/lib/methods/cfgcxma): 
            0514-040 Error initializing a device into the kernel. 
    sa# deleted

Change the parameter value as suggested by the lsresource command and press Enter.

If SMIT returns the error,

    0514-040: an error occurred initializing a device into the kernel

from the command, line try the following for the indicated port. bus1 is assumed for this example.

For the 8-port, enter:

    mkdev -t pcxr -c adapter -s isa -p bus1 -a bus_io_addr=0xYYY

For the 128-port, enter:

    mkdev -t cxia -c adapter -s isa -p bus1 -a bus_io_addr=0xYYY

YYY is the bus_io_address corresponding to the adapter jumper settings.

Verifying the availability of the adapter

Verify the availability of the adapter. Enter:

    lsdev -Cc adapter

Configure devices. Enter:

    smit tty

    smit printer

Use the List and Help features of SMIT.