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You can put basically any modprobe options in there for anything and it load the module with the parameters.
The file could be called "dumb_effing_card.conf" with the entries for the adapter and it'd work. It just makes life easier having the parameters in a file with descriptive name. If you have a few different modules that need custom params it just makes it easier 6 months down the road.

Damn, that is .... strange, but it works !
Alsa is used for sound/audio subsystem on Linux, so nice workaround, for sure.

I have found a way to get my CH382L cards to work

I discovered this thread:
www.linux.org/threads/solved-unable-to-f...nc-as-parport.24355/

The solution for me was (paraphrasing from linked thread)

sudo <editor of choice> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

add these lines to the file with your serial address where it says io=0xb100 In my case and the responder to the thread it was the second address:

# LPC parport to PCI-E card
alias parport_low level parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0xb100 irq=18,auto

Then reboot

Now the parport is recognized by parport_pc
You will not see any difference in lspci -v output

I wouldn’t bother with vendor supplied drivers.
They are really only for some of the manufacturer’s specific features of the chipset relating to the serial port.

From memory this card should be supported by parport_serial. The fact that there doesn’t seem to be a driver loaded is curious. I was wrong on this account whilst 1C00 does show up there is no entry for 1c00:2170, 1c00:3050 & 1c00:3250 are.

before we go too far have you established that the latency is adequate for software step generation ?

Have you tried the Parallel Port tester utility ? There are quite a few references to it in other threads dealing with Parallel Port issues. This topic usually comes up a few times a month. There’s a wealth of information on the forum but it seems the search function isn’t used.


What is still curious is that you haven’t supplied any error messages given by linuxcnc when starting a basic config. I’m pretty sure there is a supplied config for using a Parallel Port when running linuxcnc from the menu.

This maybe a solution, whilst the chipset is not the same it may just work.
www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-h...5657555/#post6018828

If you have a pc you can insert the card into you could boot linuxcnc live and see if the card is recognised.

Thank you for your suggestion. I was going to do that, but then the PC started having an issue as it wasn't booting. After numerous tries it somehow opened and I booted with live linuxcnc. I executed test commands for parallel port and thankfully I saw the card was registered as parport0, unsurprisingly with the same adress as in Windows. I was going to run parallel port tester program and check pin voltages but then PC started malfunctioning again and now it is not opening again.

I will have to investigate further about the issue with the PC indeed or just move to a newer one as that one was old and a bit problematic anyway, but with a working PC system should run fine from now on I suppose. Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't think a driver installation is needed in this case as it is recognised as parport.

So the issue with my original problematic setup was probably that M.2 to PCIe adapter isn't supported in my use case. It was an adventurous try but I'd like to move to linuxcnc anyway so I will stick to a working way. Thank you all for your help.

cornholio wrote:

If you have a pc you can insert the card into you could boot linuxcnc live and see if the card is recognised.

+1

A little more info
The kernel should load parport_serial for the following PCI ids
1C00:3250
1C00:3050
which should be the PCI ids for your card in either 2S1P or 1P mode.

Even if you can build the driver, there's another here github.com/WCHSoftGroup/ch35_38x_linux I'm doubtful if the drivers would load in your current setup. This driver seems to be able to use some of the more advanced features on the serial port side.

If you have a pc you can insert the card into you could boot linuxcnc live and see if the card is recognised.

sudo dmesg | grep parport and sudo cat /proc/ioports | grep parport outputs nothing.
sudo ls /dev/par* outputs "no such file or directory"

Thanks for your suggestion tommylight. I will try this. I will keep looking into trying to make linuxcnc work from time to time but I need to get my actual works done too. I will be on this topic.

The funny thing is the pc_parport driver & others are loading. If you look at the github page for the driver it seems only related to the serial port portion, they even admit the standard serial port driver is ok.

What do the following show ?
sudo dmesg | grep parport

sudo ls /dev/par*

sudo cat /proc/ioports | grep parport

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not looking to invest in rather expensive stuff currently as I already have a working setup that is not using linuxcnc.

I may try the pin shorting method, but if driver installation is needed anyway and if I can't pass this step, pin shorting method won't be effective.

"One thing I would do is to insert a known working PCIe card of any type, LAN card might be best as Linux recogonises almost all, if this works you can rule out the first link in getting this to work."
That's right. I thought of that and will end up doing this if I will be able to install the driver first and see that it still isn't working.

If M.2 to PCIe adapter is an issue somehow, I can move to a board with PCIe slot but again, driver issue should be sorted out first.

arda wrote:

I downloaded and installed LinuxCNC 2.9.2 Debian 12 Bookworm PREEMPT-RT ISO from linuxcnc.org. I have no idea where raspi stuff came from.

It is included, still, despite hundreds of reports this has not been fixed.
So not anything you did.
If you want to exclude this as a cause, try this
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...int-debian-edition-6

raspi stuff comes from a broken debian installer. Has nothing to do with drivers of any sort.

At first, I also thought "skipping btf" may not be relevant like you said and I moved on with the installation. Then I checked with commands and tests and there were still no sign of success. "skipping btf" was also mentioning "wch.ko couldn't be created" though.

I downloaded and installed LinuxCNC 2.9.2 Debian 12 Bookworm PREEMPT-RT ISO from linuxcnc.org. I have no idea where raspi stuff came from. So I'm wondering if the issue is related to the driver as I wasn't able to successfully pass that stage.

Really should pick it up from the array of installed port(s). The great addy "0" in this case. If it doesn't it obviously ain't parport'io'ing today...

Great day to rid the raspi weirdness methink!