Serial port support in wine-1.0: What to do to make it working ?

[Pavel Troller]

Hi!
  I have really BIG problems running any application, which needs to comm over
a serial port:
  - My ham TCVR
  - My GPS
  - My multimeter
  - A lot of my mobiles
  - A lot of devices used in my work (special telco equipment, comms varying
    from simple AT-style commands up to complex proprietary binary protocols).
  In all the cases there are very similar problems - either the program doesn't
detect the device properly, or the device doesn't respond, or in some cases
the device does, what the program wants, but it then can't read it back.
  It looks that some archaic wine versions are better, for example I have to
use wine-0.9.40 to communicate with a device in my work (simple text-based
command-reply communication), any wine newer than say 0.9.50 doesn't work, the
communication times out.
  Because I'm a telco engineer and serial comm is my daily work, and there are
only windows versions of many tools I have to use, proper and mature serial
port support is essential for me.
  So, what can I do to help fixing these problems ? Should I open a bug for
every such a program ? Or just open one bug and state all the programs there ?
I think that bugzilla contains a lot of bugs related to serial port; is it
good to add a new ones ? 
  I'm afraid I can't bisect a problem between 0.9.40 and current wine, but I
can make a serial trace for both of them and look at the difference. Would it
help to find at least this one particular problem ? Or what more can I do
to make the serial port working ? I can code in C in the Linux environment, but
I know NOTHING about windows...
  With regards, Pavel Troller

[Vitaliy Margolen]

Pavel Troller wrote:
> So, what can I do to help fixing these problems ? Should I open a bug for
> To solve most/all problems related to hardware one needs to have such 
> hardware. It's nearly impossible to "simulate" the behavior while reading logs.
> every such a program ? Or just open one bug and state all the programs there ?
> I think that bugzilla contains a lot of bugs related to serial port; is it
> good to add a new ones ? 
> No, creating duplicates never helps. You are correct there are already 
> pliantly of bugs for serial communications.
> I'm afraid I can't bisect a problem between 0.9.40 and current wine, but I
> can make a serial trace for both of them and look at the difference. Would it
> help to find at least this one particular problem ? Or what more can I do
> to make the serial port working ? I can code in C in the Linux environment, but

There are few bugs identified and are set as target for 1.0.0. You can look 
at those bugs. Few even list the commit that caused the regression. While 
those patches should have been no-ops.

So what you can do is to figure out what really changed and what part of the 
change broke the serial port functionality (in relation to each bug/patch). 
For this part you will need your hardware. Hopefully this will be enough to 
come up with a fix.

Vitaliy.

[Uwe Bonnes]

> > > > > "Pavel" == Pavel Troller <patrol(a)sinus.cz> writes:

Pavel> Hi!  I have really BIG problems running any application, which
    Pavel> needs to comm over a serial port: - My ham TCVR - My GPS - My
    Pavel> multimeter - A lot of my mobiles - A lot of devices used in my
    Pavel> work (special telco equipment, comms varying from simple AT-style
    Pavel> commands up to complex proprietary binary protocols).  In all the
    Pavel> cases there are very similar problems - either the program
    Pavel> doesn't detect the device properly, or the device doesn't
    Pavel> respond, or in some cases the device does, what the program
    Pavel> wants, but it then can't read it back.  It looks that some
    Pavel> archaic wine versions are better, for example I have to use
    Pavel> wine-0.9.40 to communicate with a device in my work (simple
    Pavel> text-based command-reply communication), any wine newer than say
    Pavel> 0.9.50 doesn't work, the communication times out.  Because I'm a
    Pavel> telco engineer and serial comm is my daily work, and there are
    Pavel> only windows versions of many tools I have to use, proper and
    Pavel> mature serial port support is essential for me.  So, what can I
    Pavel> do to help fixing these problems ? Should I open a bug for every
    Pavel> such a program ? Or just open one bug and state all the programs
    Pavel> there ?  I think that bugzilla contains a lot of bugs related to
    Pavel> serial port; is it good to add a new ones ?  I'm afraid I can't
    Pavel> bisect a problem between 0.9.40 and current wine, but I can make
    Pavel> a serial trace for both of them and look at the difference. Would
    Pavel> it help to find at least this one particular problem ? Or what
    Pavel> more can I do to make the serial port working ? I can code in C
    Pavel> in the Linux environment, but I know NOTHING about windows...
    Pavel> With regards, Pavel Troller

Pavel,

perhaps compile wine yourself and instrument the serial code with debugging
output. Try to see what's going wrong. Look at the codes where this happens
and read the old changelogs, where somebody fiddled witrh the code. Ask
about what people thought (or smoked) when implementing or offer a better
implementation.

There is a big problem with those special devices, as only few if any wine
developpers have it...

Bye
-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon(a)elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. [phone] -------- Fax. [phone] ----------

[Pavel Troller]

Hi Uwe,
> Pavel,
>
> perhaps compile wine yourself and instrument the serial code with debugging
> output. Try to see what's going wrong. Look at the codes where this happens
> and read the old changelogs, where somebody fiddled witrh the code. Ask
> about what people thought (or smoked) when implementing or offer a better
> implementation.

OK, will do. I'm always compiling wine from source, so I will try to dig into
the driver and search for the bugs there. One of the cases is I think simple,
the device uses normal ASCII protocol and I can talk to it using kermit or
minicom, but the windows program intended to control it simply stucks on the
first command and never gets a reply. I think there is a good place to start.
> There is a big problem with those special devices, as only few if any wine
> developpers have it...

Yes, I know. I hope that there is just a limited number of bugs, but they
affect many such devices, so it looks that the driver is totally broken.

With regards, Pavel Troller