Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

Hello again,

I'm still having trouble detecting my Dectalk Express with the latest 
speakup. This time I'm using FC12 with kernel 2.6.31 with speakup 3.1.5 
from git as of yesterday.

The issue is that the Dectalk cannot be found. I get the error below.

FATAL: Error inserting speakup_dectlk 
(/lib/modules/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/speakup/speakup_dectlk.ko): No such 
device

The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card. I can 
communicate with the Dectalk in minicom with the serial port set to ttyS0 
and 9600,n,8,1. The [:ver speak] command will result in the Dectalk 
speaking its firmware version.

So, I know the serial port works, but for some reason speakup is unable to 
detect the Dectalk. Note, I've also tried a vanilla 2.6.32 kernel as well 
as a modified 2.6.18 rhel5 kernel. I'm pretty confident that this isn't 
kernel related, but speakup or hardware related. Likely a combination of 
both, since I presume others are using the latest speakup with the Dectalk 
Express.

Is anyone able to help? I have a spare pci express serial card I can 
provide to anyone willing to help.

Thanks,

Trevor

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Kirk Reiser]

Have you checked to make sure the speakup_dectlk.ko module is actually
at that position in the path?  That looks more like a modprobe error
than a speakup one.  You might also try running depmod -a to make sure
it's in the database.  I've found that sometimes modules_install's
depmod doesn't quite cover the situation correctly.

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:

> Hello again,
>
> I'm still having trouble detecting my Dectalk Express with the latest 
> speakup. This time I'm using FC12 with kernel 2.6.31 with speakup 3.1.5 from 
> git as of yesterday.
>
> The issue is that the Dectalk cannot be found. I get the error below.
>
> FATAL: Error inserting speakup_dectlk 
> (/lib/modules/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/speakup/speakup_dectlk.ko): No such 
> device
>
> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card. I can communicate 
> with the Dectalk in minicom with the serial port set to ttyS0 and 9600,n,8,1. 
> The [:ver speak] command will result in the Dectalk speaking its firmware 
> version.
>
> So, I know the serial port works, but for some reason speakup is unable to 
> detect the Dectalk. Note, I've also tried a vanilla 2.6.32 kernel as well as 
> a modified 2.6.18 rhel5 kernel. I'm pretty confident that this isn't kernel 
> related, but speakup or hardware related. Likely a combination of both, since 
> I presume others are using the latest speakup with the Dectalk Express.
>
> Is anyone able to help? I have a spare pci express serial card I can provide 
> to anyone willing to help.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Trevor
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

--
Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

Yeah, I thought the location was odd too. But it is indeed installed 
there.

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 222333 2010-01-14 10:03 
/lib/modules/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/speakup/speakup_dectlk.ko

I tried depmod -a again, but I still get the same result. The main speakup 
module does get loaded, so modprobe does appear to be finding the module. 
To be sure, I also tried insmod and get the same "No such device" error.

I'm curious if anyone else is using a hardware synth over a pci express 
serial card to know if this situation is unique to me.

Kirk, I'm in Montreal, so it would be easy for me to send the card to you 
if you have the time.

Thanks,

Trevor

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Kirk Reiser wrote:

> Have you checked to make sure the speakup_dectlk.ko module is actually
> at that position in the path?  That looks more like a modprobe error
> than a speakup one.  You might also try running depmod -a to make sure
> it's in the database.  I've found that sometimes modules_install's
> depmod doesn't quite cover the situation correctly.
>
> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>
>> Hello again,
>> 
>> I'm still having trouble detecting my Dectalk Express with the latest 
>> speakup. This time I'm using FC12 with kernel 2.6.31 with speakup 3.1.5 
>> from git as of yesterday.
>> 
>> The issue is that the Dectalk cannot be found. I get the error below.
>> 
>> FATAL: Error inserting speakup_dectlk 
>> (/lib/modules/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/speakup/speakup_dectlk.ko): No such 
>> device
>> 
>> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card. I can communicate 
>> with the Dectalk in minicom with the serial port set to ttyS0 and 
>> 9600,n,8,1. The [:ver speak] command will result in the Dectalk speaking 
>> its firmware version.
>> 
>> So, I know the serial port works, but for some reason speakup is unable to 
>> detect the Dectalk. Note, I've also tried a vanilla 2.6.32 kernel as well 
>> as a modified 2.6.18 rhel5 kernel. I'm pretty confident that this isn't 
>> kernel related, but speakup or hardware related. Likely a combination of 
>> both, since I presume others are using the latest speakup with the Dectalk 
>> Express.
>> 
>> Is anyone able to help? I have a spare pci express serial card I can 
>> provide to anyone willing to help.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Trevor
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> 
>
> --
> Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
> e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
> phone: (519) 661-3061
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Adam Myrow]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:

> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card.

I think that's the problem.  So far as I know, Speakup still doesn't 
support serial ports that aren't built-in to the computer.  Since 
computers generally don't come with serial ports anymore, that is a huge 
problem.  Somehow, there needs to be a way to pass IRQ and port addresses 
to the module so that such PCI serial cards can work.  I've never 
encountered a PCI express serial card, so don't know if any special 
support in the kernel is required, other than the obvious of having 
support for PCI express in the first place.

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Glenn Ervin]

Has anyone ever gotten a serial synth to work via USB adapter?
I think that if it works for a USB to serial, it should work for a PC 
Express card to serial.
I think some cards work without drivers, and others need to have drivers 
installed.
Glenn

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Myrow" <myrowa@bellsouth.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards


On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:

> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card.

I think that's the problem.  So far as I know, Speakup still doesn't
support serial ports that aren't built-in to the computer.  Since
computers generally don't come with serial ports anymore, that is a huge
problem.  Somehow, there needs to be a way to pass IRQ and port addresses
to the module so that such PCI serial cards can work.  I've never
encountered a PCI express serial card, so don't know if any special
support in the kernel is required, other than the obvious of having
support for PCI express in the first place.
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup 

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

This is what I am thinking as well. Just fyi, the card doesn't use any 
special drivers and is compatible with the linux serial driver, which is 
built into my kernel. The company supports linux as well. This is why I 
bought it. It was just supposed to work. <grin>

Here is the output from setserial:

/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
         closing_wait: 3000
         Flags: spd_normal skip_test

Does speakup get the serial port address from the bios? Since the card 
isn't built-in, it would make sense that speakup can't find it, if this is 
the case.

Using lspci, it does list the card and the serial port address and irq.

Btw, I did try changing the uart to 16550A, as the card supports this uart 
type, but still no go.

Thanks,

Trevor

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Adam Myrow wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>
>> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card.
>
> I think that's the problem.  So far as I know, Speakup still doesn't support 
> serial ports that aren't built-in to the computer.  Since computers generally 
> don't come with serial ports anymore, that is a huge problem.  Somehow, there 
> needs to be a way to pass IRQ and port addresses to the module so that such 
> PCI serial cards can work.  I've never encountered a PCI express serial card, 
> so don't know if any special support in the kernel is required, other than 
> the obvious of having support for PCI express in the first place.
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Glenn Ervin]

How much was the card, and where can I get one?
I've been wanting a way to use my PC express slot in my laptop, hoping 
someone would make a synth to plug into it.  So far I have only found PC 
express video cards.
I would use one of these for my DecTalk synth, serial type.
Glenn
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Trevor Astrope" <astrope@tabbweb.com>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards


This is what I am thinking as well. Just fyi, the card doesn't use any
special drivers and is compatible with the linux serial driver, which is
built into my kernel. The company supports linux as well. This is why I
bought it. It was just supposed to work. <grin>

Here is the output from setserial:

/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
         closing_wait: 3000
         Flags: spd_normal skip_test

Does speakup get the serial port address from the bios? Since the card
isn't built-in, it would make sense that speakup can't find it, if this is
the case.

Using lspci, it does list the card and the serial port address and irq.

Btw, I did try changing the uart to 16550A, as the card supports this uart
type, but still no go.

Thanks,

Trevor

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Adam Myrow wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>
>> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card.
>
> I think that's the problem.  So far as I know, Speakup still doesn't 
> support
> serial ports that aren't built-in to the computer.  Since computers 
> generally
> don't come with serial ports anymore, that is a huge problem.  Somehow, 
> there
> needs to be a way to pass IRQ and port addresses to the module so that 
> such
> PCI serial cards can work.  I've never encountered a PCI express serial 
> card,
> so don't know if any special support in the kernel is required, other than
> the obvious of having support for PCI express in the first place.
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup 

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

Hi Glenn,

I got the card from <http://www.softio.com>. The company is called Axxon 
though and I got the single port pci express card. I don't recall the 
price and model, but I can find out when I'm back at the office on Monday. 
It is based on an Oxford chip and I think the price was around $30 or $35 
USD. It is a Canadian company, but they charge in USD.

There are also other manufacturers who make pci express serial cards based 
on the oxford chip. Searching for "pci express serial card" on google will 
turn up a few results.

Keep in mind that I haven't been able to get it to work with my dectalk 
and speakup. I have an extra one that I am willing to donate to anyone who 
is willing to work on getting speakup to work with it.

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010, Glenn Ervin wrote:

> How much was the card, and where can I get one?
> I've been wanting a way to use my PC express slot in my laptop, hoping
> someone would make a synth to plug into it.  So far I have only found PC
> express video cards.
> I would use one of these for my DecTalk synth, serial type.
> Glenn
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Trevor Astrope" <astrope@tabbweb.com>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 9:18 AM
> Subject: Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards
>
>
> This is what I am thinking as well. Just fyi, the card doesn't use any
> special drivers and is compatible with the linux serial driver, which is
> built into my kernel. The company supports linux as well. This is why I
> bought it. It was just supposed to work. <grin>
>
> Here is the output from setserial:
>
> /dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
>         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
>         closing_wait: 3000
>         Flags: spd_normal skip_test
>
> Does speakup get the serial port address from the bios? Since the card
> isn't built-in, it would make sense that speakup can't find it, if this is
> the case.
>
> Using lspci, it does list the card and the serial port address and irq.
>
> Btw, I did try changing the uart to 16550A, as the card supports this uart
> type, but still no go.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Trevor
>
> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Adam Myrow wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>>
>>> The serial port is provided by an Axxon pci express card.
>>
>> I think that's the problem.  So far as I know, Speakup still doesn't
>> support
>> serial ports that aren't built-in to the computer.  Since computers
>> generally
>> don't come with serial ports anymore, that is a huge problem.  Somehow,
>> there
>> needs to be a way to pass IRQ and port addresses to the module so that
>> such
>> PCI serial cards can work.  I've never encountered a PCI express serial
>> card,
>> so don't know if any special support in the kernel is required, other than
>> the obvious of having support for PCI express in the first place.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Gregory Nowak]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

For what it's worth, my guess is the irq, and i/o address are the
problem. If you have a way to setup your card for irq 04, i/o 0x03F8,
or any of the other standard irq and i/o ranges for ttyS1-ttyS3, I'd
give a 99.999% guess that it should work. Hth.

Greg


On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 10:18:49AM -0500, Trevor Astrope wrote:
> This is what I am thinking as well. Just fyi, the card doesn't use any  
> special drivers and is compatible with the linux serial driver, which is  
> built into my kernel. The company supports linux as well. This is why I  
> bought it. It was just supposed to work. <grin>
>
> Here is the output from setserial:
>
> /dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
>         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
>         closing_wait: 3000
>         Flags: spd_normal skip_test
>
> Does speakup get the serial port address from the bios? Since the card  
> isn't built-in, it would make sense that speakup can't find it, if this 
> is the case.
>
> Using lspci, it does list the card and the serial port address and irq.
>
> Btw, I did try changing the uart to 16550A, as the card supports this 
> uart type, but still no go.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Trevor


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DIEAnAp13vgKPnem/r1NqsSREKwwU3ok
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Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

Looks like this is the case. The irq/io addresses are defined in 
serialio.h. I'll modify it to use irq 16 and 0xCC00 tomorrow and give it a 
try.

Thanks!

Trevor


On Sat, 16 Jan 2010, Gregory Nowak wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> For what it's worth, my guess is the irq, and i/o address are the
> problem. If you have a way to setup your card for irq 04, i/o 0x03F8,
> or any of the other standard irq and i/o ranges for ttyS1-ttyS3, I'd
> give a 99.999% guess that it should work. Hth.
>
> Greg
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 10:18:49AM -0500, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>> This is what I am thinking as well. Just fyi, the card doesn't use any
>> special drivers and is compatible with the linux serial driver, which is
>> built into my kernel. The company supports linux as well. This is why I
>> bought it. It was just supposed to work. <grin>
>>
>> Here is the output from setserial:
>>
>> /dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
>>         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
>>         closing_wait: 3000
>>         Flags: spd_normal skip_test
>>
>> Does speakup get the serial port address from the bios? Since the card
>> isn't built-in, it would make sense that speakup can't find it, if this
>> is the case.
>>
>> Using lspci, it does list the card and the serial port address and irq.
>>
>> Btw, I did try changing the uart to 16550A, as the card supports this
>> uart type, but still no go.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Trevor
>
>
> - --
> web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
> gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
> skype: gregn1
> (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
>
> - --
> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>
> iEYEARECAAYFAktShG4ACgkQ7s9z/XlyUyBligCffuO2wt6SxAmJLDtO9GO7TsED
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> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[William Hubbs]

Hi Greg, I am posting this again because I'm not sure if it made it to
the list the first time.

On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 08:30:54PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> For what it's worth, my guess is the irq, and i/o address are the
> problem. If you have a way to setup your card for irq 04, i/o 0x03F8,
> or any of the other standard irq and i/o ranges for ttyS1-ttyS3, I'd
> give a 99.999% guess that it should work. Hth.

Unfortunately, I'm sure this is his issue.  The problem is that we have
the ports and irq numbers hard coded into speakup, and we access the
hardware directly instead of using linux tty devices to do so.

This is one of the issues that still needs to be fixed before we can
submit speakup to become an official part of the kernel; we need to
convert over to use linux ttys.

If we were doing that, he would not have noticed a difference.

William

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

Hi William,

I tried hard coding the irq and i/o address of my serial card in 
serialio.h and did a make clean, make and make modules_install, ran depmod 
-a again to be sure and even rebooted, but the synth is still not being 
detected.

Is there anything else I need to change in the source to hard code my 
serial port?

Here is what I changed in serialio.h:

#ifndef SERIAL_PORT_DFNS
#define SERIAL_PORT_DFNS                        \
         /* UART CLK   PORT IRQ     FLAGS        */                      \
         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0xCC, 16, STD_COM_FLAGS}, \
         /* { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0x3F8, 4, STD_COM_FLAGS },   /* ttyS0 */     \ 
*/
         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0x2F8, 3, STD_COM_FLAGS },      /* ttyS1 */     \
         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0x3E8, 4, STD_COM_FLAGS },      /* ttyS2 */     \
         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0x2E8, 3, STD_COM4_FLAGS },     /* ttyS3 */
#endif

and here is what setserial shows for ttyS0:
/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16950/954, Port: 0xcc00, IRQ: 16
         Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
         closing_wait: 3000
         Flags: spd_normal skip_test

Thanks,

Trevor

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010, William Hubbs 
wrote:

> Hi Greg, I am posting this again because I'm not sure if it made it to
> the list the first time.
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 08:30:54PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
>> For what it's worth, my guess is the irq, and i/o address are the
>> problem. If you have a way to setup your card for irq 04, i/o 0x03F8,
>> or any of the other standard irq and i/o ranges for ttyS1-ttyS3, I'd
>> give a 99.999% guess that it should work. Hth.
>
> Unfortunately, I'm sure this is his issue.  The problem is that we have
> the ports and irq numbers hard coded into speakup, and we access the
> hardware directly instead of using linux tty devices to do so.
>
> This is one of the issues that still needs to be fixed before we can
> submit speakup to become an official part of the kernel; we need to
> convert over to use linux ttys.
>
> If we were doing that, he would not have noticed a difference.
>
> William
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Samuel Thibault]

Trevor Astrope, le Tue 19 Jan 2010 09:33:16 -0500, a écrit :
>         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0xCC, 16, STD_COM_FLAGS}, \

It's not juste 0xCC, give the whole number (0xCC00 iirc?)

Samuel

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: TEXT/PLAIN, Size: 532 bytes --]

Thanks Samuel. I tried both 0xCC00 and 0xCC after I saw that the other 
entries left off the 0's. Still no go either way.

On Tue, 19 Jan 2010, Samuel Thibault wrote:

> Trevor Astrope, le Tue 19 Jan 2010 09:33:16 -0500, a écrit :
>>         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0xCC, 16, STD_COM_FLAGS}, \
>
> It's not juste 0xCC, give the whole number (0xCC00 iirc?)
>
> Samuel
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Samuel Thibault]

Trevor Astrope, le Tue 19 Jan 2010 13:42:48 -0500, a écrit :
> Thanks Samuel. I tried both 0xCC00 and 0xCC after I saw that the other 
> entries left off the 0's.

Which 0's?

Samuel

Re: Speakup and PCI Express Serial Cards

[Trevor Astrope]

For those following along in the ongoing saga of Trevor versus speakup and 
the pci express card, here is the latest chapter:

I last left you after modifying serialio.h and hard coding the values for 
my pci express card. This had no effect.

Well, after checking a little closer, the hard coded values for 
SERIAL_PORT_DFNS is in an #ifndef, so it seems it is defined elsewhere. 
Trevor not being a C programmer, let alone a kernel developer, changed 
that #ifndef to a #ifdef to see where it is defined.

Turns out, in my case, it is defined in 
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/arch/x86/include/asm/serial.h, 
and what is more, it is defined the same way as it is in serialio.h.

Taking up thy keyboard, I carefully change the first entry to look like 
this:

         { 0, BASE_BAUD, 0xCC00, 16, STD_COM_FLAGS },    /* ttyS0 */     \

I then do the ever so familiar, make clean; make; make modules_install; 
and add another depmod -a, just for luck. But alas, it is all for not. I 
still only hear silence after connecting my dectalk express and invoking 
the modprobe speakup_dectlk command.

Desperate times, calling for desperate measures, I once again roll up my 
sleeves, take a deep breath, and once again delve into the speakup source 
code...

I notice some print statements that are commented out in serialio.c, so I 
uncomment them in hopes of getting some more information in the logs. For 
those who are still following along and are just dieing to know what they 
are, I won't keep you in suspense...

75 /*printk(KERN_ERR "in irq\n"); */
76 /*pr_warn("in IRQ\n"); */

There are some others, but they aren't important for now.

At first, I did not see anything else being printed in the logs. In the 
time honoured tradition of, "what happens when I do this," I commented out 
these lines in serialio.c:

41                if (synth_request_region(ser->port, 8))
42                        return NULL;

Once again, after the make clean; make; make modules_install; ritual, 
followed by the modprobe speakup_dectlk invocation, with the depmod -a 
thrown in there for luck, you'll never guess what happened...

I heard the following in a slow and drawn out, but still familiar voice, 
"Dectalk Express found." But where is the rest? No prompt, no nothing. Hit 
enter a few times, but only my old friend, silence. I told you that you 
wouldn't guess.

I did find those print statements I told you about in the logs though, so 
I do feel I'm getting closer. I feel I only 
need to figure out what synth_request_region(ser->port, 8) means, and I'll 
be a little closer...

I will beg upon the mercy of the speakup developers and offer them a gift 
in the form of my logs and hopefully I will be rewarded with some 
enlightenment.

Jan 22 15:10:05 trevor kernel: speakup: unregistering synth device 
/dev/synth
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: speakup 3.1.3: initialized
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: synth name on entry is: <NULL>
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 
10, $
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: synth probe
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: Ports not available, trying to steal them
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: Trying to free nonexistent resource 
<00000000000$
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: in irq
Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: in IRQ

These last two lines are repeated a few times

Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: Jan 22 15:10:54 trevor kernel: Dectalk 
Express: $

And then about a hundred more of the irq lines, followed by this, likely 
after I disconnected the synth

Jan 22 15:11:27 trevor kernel: Dectalk Express: too many timeouts, 
deactivating$

As usual, any help is appreciated. I hope you at least enjoyed my 
ramblings as I slowly, but surely lose my mind.

Thanks,

Trevor