How to monitor i386 serial-port pins?

From: Mike Yates (trawled_at_fonehelp.co.uk)
Date: 06/29/04

  • Next message: Jos van Kan: "Re: How do I make syslogd not reverse lookup the FQDN" 
    Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:08:04 +0100

    I want to use the buttons of an old serial mouse (rewired direct to DTR,
    RTS) to operate some software, independently of the main mouse. I was
    able to do this in a DOS program (under Win98) using the "Powerbasic"
    function inp(766) where 766 is 02FE, the actual pins of COM2, accessed
    via the BIOS.

    So far, the nearest I've got in Linux is using "apcupsd", the daemon to
    monitor APC UPS which, in "dumb" mode, monitors specific pins to
    activate four scriptable options. Unfortunately (a) it monitors CD and
    RI, not in a mouse cable, and (b) it only polls every 5 secs. The
    sources are very complex to patch. It uses many different ioctl()
    functions, and "#include <sys/iocotl.h>" which I don't have.

    Does anyone here know of another monitoring program which could be used
    to pick up the status of the actual pins? Some "soft LED" monitors seem
    to pick up carrier-detect (CD, pin 1 of 9) independently, but I can only
    find X11 ones at present. I could rewire to CD and RI if necessary.

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