Prolific Driver for Currentcost device

[hideoushog]

I am attempting to attach a "Currentcost" device to the USB port of my sheeva plug but I cannot get it to talk. The Currentcost has a Prolific PL2303x serial to USB conversion chip. I  know block devices work correctly since I can attach USB drives or Pen drives. I am detecting the Prolific chip correctly and I have the latest debian release as shown below.

Code:

root@debian:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
root@debian:~# uname -a
Linux debian 2.6.33 #2 PREEMPT Tue Mar 2 14:27:17 MST 2010 armv5tel GNU/Linux root@debian:~#

When I connect to USB,  the device /dev/usbdev1.2 appears but I do not get a device /dev/ttyUSB0 which is what I would expect. Has anyone connected to the Prolific device through USB?

I have read somewhere that the PL2303 driver is compiled into the kernel. Can someone confirm this is true?  If not, how should I proceed? As far as I can see there is no driver for Linux on the Prolific site.

I have been looking at modprobe and loading a driver module but without a driver that is no good.

[superpat]

Hi,

It is some time since I experimented with my current cost CC128 power monitor on the Sheeva Plug.

but if I remember correctly,  when I had to compile a new kernel for the Plug,  for my sata mods,  I also had to change the  config to include the Prolific driver in the USB section. 

It all worked OK after that. ( running  xpl-perl and the cc128 module)

cheers

Patrick

[hideoushog]

Thank you, Patrick for that feedback. I thought that might be the case.  It sounds then like I shall have to learn how to compile my own kernel. I was hoping I would not need to learn how to do that. First time, I am not a *nix expert, this is just a fun project.

If anyone can give me any pointers how best to proceed it would be appreciated, Prolific driver source code? etc etc or if it is possible to add a module without compiling my own kernel?

[superpat]

Hi,

You can just install the driver module if it is available in your system.

You may find that the Prolific driver is already compiled as a module  (pl2303.ko)  If so it will be in your plug's  modules directory. It  should be in  /lib/modules/"kernel-name"/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.ko.   where kernel-name is the current kernel you are booting.

Check kernel version with uname -a

You can then install the driver by doing a modprobe or insmod  ( use man modprobe or man insmod for help!)

After installing check the  module is present with lsmod

If the pl2303.ko module is not in your modules directory, you can add a modules directory  containing the prolific driver to your system from another repository.  You can ONLY add a directory  with  the SAME kernel version as your kernel version (major and minor). Do NOT mix versions, it won't work.

cheers


Patrick

[hideoushog]

I can now access the Prolific PL2303x device  . I first managed to recompile the Linux kernel 2.6.33.1 and with a small change to the .config file the pl2303 driver was included in the kernel. A good learning exercise since I can now generate  'uImage' from the Linux source.

Following your advice I then downloaded the modules from the sheeva repo and extracted into the lib/modules/ . Then without even having to use modprobe, a reboot magically loaded the pl2303 driver. Not actually magic since the config variable is set

CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303=m

So when the device is seen at boot, the module pl2303.ko, is loaded dynamically.

Excellent - Thankyou Patrick for your assistance.