Spectrum Brands MC.31XX manual Linux, Overview

Linux Software Driver Installation

Linux

Overview

The Spectrum boards are delivered with drivers for linux. It is necessary to install them manually following the steps explained afterwards. The linux drivers can be found on CD in the directory /Driver/linux. As linux is an open source operating system there are several distributions in use world-wide that are compiled with different kernel settings. As we are not able to install and maintain hundreds of different distributions and versions we had to focus on some common used linux distributions.

However if your distribution does not work with one of these pre-compiled kernel modules or you have a specialized kernel installed (like a SMP kernel) you can get the linux driver sources directly from us. With this sources it’s no problem to compile and use the linux driver on your system. Please contact your local distributor to get the sources. The Spectrum linux drivers are compatible with kernel versions 2.4 and 2.6.

On this CD you’ll find pre-compiled linux kernel modules for the following versions:

SuSE version 8.0	Kernel 2.4.18	directory /Driver/linux/suse80	SuSE version 8.2	Kernel 2.4.20	directory /Driver/linux/suse82
SuSE version 9.0	Kernel 2.4.21	directory /Driver/linux/suse90	SuSE version 9.1	Kernel 2.6.4	directory /Driver/linux/suse91
Redhat version 9.0	Kernel 2.4.20	directory /Driver/linux/redhat90

Installation

Login as root.

It is necessary to have the root rights for installing a driver.

Select the right driver from the CD.

Refer to the list shown above. If your distribution is not listed there please select the module that most closely matches your installed kernel version. Copy the driver kernel module spc.o from the CD directory to your hard disk. Be sure to use a hard disk directory that is a accessible by all users who should work with the board.

First time load of the driver

The linux driver is shipped as the loadable module spc.o. The driver includes all Spectrum PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are recognized automatically after driver loading.Load the driver with the insmod command:

linux:~ # insmod spc.o

The insmod command may generate a warning that the driver module was compiled for another kernel version. In that case you may try to load the driver module with the force parameter and test the board very carefully.

linux:~ # insmod -f spc.o

If the kernel module could not be loaded in your linux installation it is necessary to compile the driver directly on your system. Please contact- Spectrum to get the needed source files including the compilation description.

Depending on the used linux distribution the insmod command generates a message telling the driver version and the board types and serial numbers that have been found. If your distribution does not show this message it is possible to view them with the dmesg command:

linux:~ # dmesg

... some other stuff

spc driver version: 3.07 build 0

sp0: MI.3020 sn 01234

In the example we show you the output generated by a MI.3020. All other board types are similar to this output but showing the correct board type.

Examine the major number of the driver

For accessing the device driver it is necessary to know the major number of the device. This number is listed in the /proc/devices list. The device driver is called "spec" in this list. Normally this number is 254 but this depends on the device drivers that have been installed before.

linux:~ # cat /proc/devices Character devices:

...

171ieee1394

180usb

188ttyUSB

254spec

Block devices:

1ramdisk

2fd

...

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