[TriLUG] OT: IBM NetVista serial ports

[Andrew Perrin]

Sorry if this is off-topic but I'm hoping someone can help me out.

I've got an IBM NetVista A40 and I'm trying to get a CoStar LabelWriter XL
to work on it.  I've tested the label printer, and it works fine on:

- a Windows 98 laptop; and
- a Debian 2.2r6 laptop

To test, I used pbm2lwxl to generate a binary file that can be copied to
the label printer. When I copy it to /dev/ttyS0 on my laptop, I get the
label printed out fine.  I used stty -F /dev/ttyS0 --save to generate the
settings on that port, and then used those settings on the IBM, so I know
the serial ports are set the same.  

When I copy the same binary file to /dev/ttyS0 on the IBM, there is no
response at all - the printer does nothing.

The reason this is off topic is that if I boot to a DOS diskette and do
the same thing (e.g., copy small.out com1:) nothing happens on the IBM. So
I think it's got something to do with the serial ports themselves.

The ports are activated in BIOS, and they are doing *something* - if I
switch the label printer on and off while running statserial /dev/ttyS0,
the CTS value switches. So there is some communication.

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Thanks.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu