# serial port???

## mstamat

Hi, I have installed gentoo on an IBM thinkpad T21. My problem is that there are no /dev/ttyS* files, so I can't connect to my serial port (using minicom). How do I create these files? Shouldn't they be created automatically? I have already tried MAKEDEV ttyS0, but finally I get the /dev/ttyS0- device (that minicom cannot open) and an error that MAKEDEV cannot rename it to /dev/ttyS0.

Note that the serial port works fine from windows. 

Any hints?

----------

## pjp

Have you checked for kernel options?

----------

## phong

With devfs you normally don't make device nodes anymore.  Also, some device names have changed (everything in /dev is more hierarchical), though there are usually symbolic links in /dev for backwards compatability.  I *believe* that /dev/tts/* is where serial ports live now.  Also, be sure "Standard/generic serial support" is turned on in your kernel config (it's under character devices).  If you have some weird non-standard serial port it might be a different option but usually not.

----------

## mstamat

Finally the serial was disabled from the BIOS. For reasons only known to Bill Gates the serial still worked fine with win2k.

----------

## pjp

That is very strange.  When I've disabled ports in the BIOS, Win2K Pro didn't notice them.

----------

## mstamat

I asked for the topic on thinkpad-linux list and some guy there told me that his TP (I think a T30) had this behaviour (serial port working from windows even though it was disabled from BIOS). So I checked it and that was the case for me too   :Very Happy: 

----------

