FTDI Com ports "just stop"

[Karl Pielorz]

Hi,

Attempting to save electricity here I've recently moved a lot of stuff to 
an Alix (AMD 'Geode' based) board, and consolidated a lot of my serial 
devices down to 2 '4 Port USB serial' adapters on that machine.

This system is running FreeBSD 8.2-RC2 i386 - the USB devices appear as a 
bunch of:

"
usbus0: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus1: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
ugen0.1: <AMD> at usbus0
uhub0: <AMD OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus0
ugen1.1: <AMD> at usbus1
uhub1: <AMD EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus1
uhub0: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
uhub1: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.2: <vendor 0x0409> at usbus1
uhub2: <vendor 0x0409 product 0x0059, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 2> on 
usbus1
uhub2: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.3: <vendor 0x05e3> at usbus1
uhub3: <vendor 0x05e3 USB2.0 Hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/7.02, addr 3> on 
usbus1
uhub3: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.4: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi0: <FT232R USB UART> on usbus1
ugen1.5: <vendor 0x05e3> at usbus1
uhub4: <vendor 0x05e3 USB2.0 Hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/7.02, addr 5> on 
usbus1
uhub4: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.6: <ALCOR> at usbus1
uhub5: <ALCOR Generic USB Hub, class 9/0, rev 1.10/3.12, addr 6> on usbus1
uhub5: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.7: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi1: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.8: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi2: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.9: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi3: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.10: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi4: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.11: <ALCOR> at usbus1
uhub6: <ALCOR Generic USB Hub, class 9/0, rev 1.10/3.12, addr 11> on usbus1
uhub6: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ugen1.12: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi5: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.13: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi6: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.14: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi7: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
ugen1.15: <FTDI> at usbus1
uftdi8: <USB HS SERIAL CONVERTER> on usbus1
"

These end up with:

"
cuaU0           cuaU1.init      cuaU2.lock      cuaU4           cuaU5.init 
cuaU6.lock      cuaU8
cuaU0.init      cuaU1.lock      cuaU3           cuaU4.init      cuaU5.lock 
cuaU7           cuaU8.init
cuaU0.lock      cuaU2           cuaU3.init      cuaU4.lock      cuaU6 
cuaU7.init      cuaU8.lock
cuaU1           cuaU2.init      cuaU3.lock      cuaU5           cuaU6.init 
cuaU7.lock
"

In /dev.

The FT232R is a single device I have that I suspect is a 'serial device' 
with a FT232R wired internally to make it a 'USB' device.

This all works great, but then - at some random point (could be a few 
hours, could be a few days) - all those serial ports 'stop'. The FT232R 
appears to be unaffected.

Nothing is logged in syslog (apart from a bunch of 'irate' programs 
claiming they can't get data from the ports, and that things are timing 
out) - nothing is logged on the console either. They simply 'stop'.

Even a simple "tip modem" (which is mapped to /dev/cuaU8) - and worked at 
boot time, now fails. You get a "connected" header, but no data (either 
way).

Any hints how I can try and debug this? I think it might be related to the 
2nd set of 4 FTDI ports, as I didn't notice this issue for the few weeks 
the system ran with just 4 ports connected.

The FTDI ports themselves are two of these things:

 
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-Serial-Adapter-MV42264/dp/B001GXR75G/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1296413295&sr=8-12>

(Despite the 'Max Value' I've used one of these on the previous FreeBSD 7.2 
host for over a year, without issue).

Any pointers for what I can do next time this happens to try and trouble 
shoot it? Obviously with nothing logged, no errors (just a lot of programs 
blocking on serial I/O) - I'm not too sure where to start...


Thanks,

-Karl