5.1. Console drivers

Console drivers are categorised as either input and output sources. The sources for the console can be found using the console command.

Example 5.1. Using the console command to show available drivers

This shows the available drivers and if they can be used for read, write or both.

>console -d
(-w-a)  s3c2410x-video
(r---)  usbkbd
(rw--)  multi
(rw--)  null
(-w--)  all-wr
(r---)  all-rd
(rw--)  serial
(rw--)  (s3c2410_serial0)
(rw--)  (s3c2410_serial1)
(rw--)  (s3c2410_serial2)
(rw--)  (u16550_serial0)
(rw--)  (u16550_serial1)
>

These drivers allow access to the peripherals on a system. They can be used to provide input from a user to ABLE and output from ABLE to the user. Any number of them may be used simultaneously, it is possible (though not practical) to have ABLE appear on every serial port and video console attached to a system.

Table 5.1. Available console drivers

DriverDescription
s3c2410x-videoVideo display driver for the s3c2410 internal controller.
sm501-videoVideo display driver for the Silicon motion 501 controller.
usbkbdReads input from any HID USB keyboard attached to the system.
ps2kbdReads input from any PS2 keyboard attached to the system
nullThe null driver is a special driver which swallows all output sent to it and never produces any output.
multiThe multi driver is a pseudo driver which allows for multiple console sources, it should never be directly used.
all-wrThe “all write” driver is the default output driver if no other is specified. This driver sets the output to be all the available output devices. However it only selects the basic serial driver not any of the other possible serial targets, this is to limit ABLE to a sensible number of peripherals (on some boards there might be more than ten serial ports which will probably be connected to peripherals which would not respond well to the ABLE console)
all-rdThe “all read” driver is the read equivalent to the all-wr driver. This driver selects all the available input sources, again only selecting the basic serial driver.
serialThis driver is a read/write capable driver which is connected to what is historically considered the “console” serial port. This is typically the first serial port. On the EB2410ITX, for instance, it is the first internal port of the s3c2410, on the EB110ATX it is the footbridge debug port and on the EB675001DIP it is the main 16550 based port. The port will have the settings of 115200 baud, eight data bits, no parity and a single stop bit.
(s3c2410_serialX) The serial ports on the s3c2410 are presented as a series of three devices. These devices may have their settings (baud rate, parity etc.) altered as required at initialisation time or later with the setopt command.
(u16550_serialX)A given system may have several standard 16550 based serial ports each will have an entry. As with all serial devices (except the serial driver) in ABLE the port settings may be altered as required at initialisation time or later with the setopt command.