[ntp:questions] 1PPS signal on Solaris 10

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Wed May 9 20:15:54 UTC 2007


Dave wrote:
> On May 9, 3:30 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
>>Dave wrote:
>>
>>>I have been having enormous amounts of trouble detecting a 1PPS signal
>>>on a 4200 (Intel x86) running Solaris 10. There is no direct serial
>>>port connection, so I am looking for a PCI board or some other
>>>alternative way of receiving this signal. I tried a serial-to-USB
>>>connection, but the USB port does not support the DCD pin (which PPS
>>>comes over on). I've also tried a Performance Technologies board, but
>>>the ioctl calls TIOCSPPS, TIOCGPPS, and TIOCGPPSEV all return invalid
>>>values. I also have a Symmetricom BC635 board which would support the
>>>1PPS signal if they were to have a driver for Solaris 10, but none is
>>>available. I also looked into companies like Brandywine, but they
>>>don't support Solaris at all. Any suggestions?
>>
>>Yes!  Get a PC with a serial port!  You can probably find a suitable
>>machine at curbside if you keep your eyes open.  Anything made in the
>>last six or seven years should have more than enough processing power if
>>all it has to do is run ntpd.
> 
> 
> 
> Sadly, getting another machine is not an option. I have this machine
> under contract, so I really need to find a way. The main problem is
> that this machine came with a serial "management" port instead of a
> regular serial port. When making the above I/O system calls while
> connected to that, I don't get invalid responses, but I also don't get
> time values other than 0.0000000. I've hooked up the same GPS device
> to a Sun Fire v480's serial port and it worked fine. (I can't use that
> machine however). I wonder if there is a way to configure the
> management port to act differently, say, like a basic serial port?
> 

Sorry!  If you are talking about something like a "LOM" (Lights Out 
Management) port, I know nothing about them other than the name.  Once 
upon a time you could buy ISA or EISA cards that implemented serial 
ports but those days are now many years in the past.  About the only way 
to get a serial port these days is to buy a machine that has one!  Most 
PCs come with ONE serial port (9 pin) and ONE parallel port.  The 
electronics are part of the mother board.  Most people don't even use 
those any more!





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