UART0 no keyboard input

Gilmar

Hi,

Has anyone tried booting the up board with UART0 only?
I tried it using FT232 usb-uart converter then some jumper wires into pin 9 & 10 of CN7 and of course the GND. The terminal I used was Teraterm but I don't think it matters. It display the GRUB but when login displayed it doesn't accept any input from keyboard.
I tested my FT232 converter TX-to-RX connection to see if input from keyboard is reflected back to terminal, it did work, so my FT232 is working fine.
Is there something I need to do in BIOS or wherever it is to be able to write to terminal?

I also enabled the COM0- console redirection in BIOS. Without it enabled, I have to connect first the HDMI display before the console terminal got some text on it.

It's a bit confusing the instruction found at https://up-community.org/wiki/Serial_console it says:
1. CN7 is 10-pin connector, but they don't provide 10-pin adapter.
2. They provide CN7 adapter to serial + USB 2.0 in UP SHOP, but they don't indicate how to connect it, looking at the picture it doesn't seem a 10-pin adapter.
3. They indicate FTDI (serial to USB) cable, but they don't mention about USB-UART converter, how to connect the FTDI cable then, does it fit on CN7? And no indication if the up board has on-board usb-serial converter already, customer should figure it out, remove the heat sink and find some chip that indicate "232" thing. Specification is incomplete and no schematic to look at.

Javier Arteaga

Hi gilmar,

Could you please post the BIOS version shown in the main BIOS menu? It sounds like yours is older than the BIOS used to test the steps.
(In pre-production versions, COM0 redirection wasn't enabled by default and UART0 RX was known not to work yet, which is exactly your current situation.)

As for the CN7 adapter from the shop, the 3-pin connector brings out UART0 RX/TX and GND from the 10-pin connector, which map directly to three pins on a FTDI cable. I will update the guide shortly adding detail.

Again, many thanks for your feedback!

Gilmar

Hi jarteaga,

Thank you for your reply.
I'm not sure what particular version I will look at, but I'll give you some.
This is the BIOS information:
Core Version : 5.011
Project Version: UPC1B 0.50 x64
Build Date and Time: 04/151/2016 18:19:56
Version 2.17.1249 before the Copyright written at the very bottom of the bios display.

thanks

Javier Arteaga

Thank you.

From Linux, could you please also post the output for this command?

cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/bios_version

With that as well, I should be able to bring this up with the BIOS team.

EDIT: the guide has now been updated with details on the UART0 wiring:
Serial_console#Using_the_provided_adapter
Thanks!

Gilmar

Here is the result of the command:

cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/bios_version

UPC1BM0L

cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/board_version

V0.4

Thanks

Gilmar

Any update on how I can make this thing work?

Also, does the USB 2.0 pin header has a 10-pin header on it? I can't actually see the end of the cable in the picture if it has a 10-pin header.

If I'm going to purchase 1 up-board from your shop, can I expect the UART0 is working?

Thanks

Javier Arteaga

Hi gilmar,

gilmar wrote:

Any update on how I can make this thing work?

Unfortunately, for now you're blocked on us publishing a BIOS update for boards that shipped with pre-production versions. I'm hoping we can release it on the next few days. Sorry for the inconvenience.

gilmar wrote:

Also, does the USB 2.0 pin header has a 10-pin header on it? I can't actually see the end of the cable in the picture if it has a 10-pin header.

You're right, one of the ends can't be seen clearly. It's indeed a 10-pin wafer-box connector. That adapter brings out the 10 pins to 3 connectors (2x USB 2.0, 1x serial), as detailed in:
Serial_console#Using_the_provided_adapter.

gilmar wrote:

If I'm going to purchase 1 up-board from your shop, can I expect the UART0 is working?

Yes. (It can also be made to work on the unit you currently have, but the BIOS update is required.)