Pat, On 07/05/14 07:55, Patrick Ouellette wrote:
On Tue, May 06, 2014 at 10:25:04PM +0100, Colin Tuckley wrote:z8530-utils2hasn't been updated for years. It hasn't been uploaded since 2009 and that was to remove Joop from the uploaders list.Does it work is the question. Just because it hasn't been changed in a long time does not mean it is no longer useful. It also has 0 currently open bugs.Looking at the popcon stats it seems that it's not being used by anyone.<rant> Popcon is not required and can not ever indicate software is or is not being used by someone. </rant> There are 9 installs of this package in popcon's count.
I've just started enabling popcon so my use of z8530 should start to appear.
Does it even work with 3.x kernels?Can anyone answer this? I've never had a need for an 8530 card.....
I have used z8530-utils on a 3.x kernel, 3.11.x from memory, for my Baycom USCC>4 card and it worked fine. This was on a 600Mhz P3 mobo. I used the deb package with compiled versions of libax25, ax25apps and ax25tools using sources from F6BVP.
The biggest problem I face is that modern kernels are compiled for smp, which takes every IRQ, including any that are marked Legacy ISA in BIOS. The USCC card cannot share its IRQ and locks the mobo solid as soon as a "call" is attempted. I recompiled the kernel for single core cpu and that solved the lockup problem.
I haven't tried the USCC with a multiple core CPU but, finding a modern mobo with ISA slots is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Potential users of z8530-utils need to be aware of the smp problem. Disabling smp at boot did not work for me.
I'm currently awaiting delivery of a used P4 mobo with an ISA slot and I don't anticipate any problems with z8530-utils. I'll report back on that one.
Ray vk2tv