arduino usb/com port issue

[Gary Aitken]

Hello Tomasz and Petter,

Thank you for your replies.  Still working on this:

>>> I installed the arduino package on an 11.3-RELEASE system.  When 
>>> it comes up, the Tools/Serial Port menu item is greyed out, 
>>> apparently because it doesn't know USB ports serve as com ports, 
>>> or for some reason it can't find them.  Is this something I need
>>> to configure somehow?  Is this something that should be filed as
>>> a bug?
...
>> Did you check the permissions on /dev/usb/XXX ?

These are all set to crw-------
I tried changing all to crw-rw-rw- but still no arduino success

>> And output from usbconfig

# usbconfig -d ugen6.2 dump_device_desc
ugen6.2: <Arduino www.arduino.cc product 0x0043> at usbus6, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)

   bLength = 0x0012
   bDescriptorType = 0x0001
   bcdUSB = 0x0110
   bDeviceClass = 0x0002  <Communication device>
   bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000
   bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000
   bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0008
   idVendor = 0x2341
   idProduct = 0x0043
   bcdDevice = 0x0001
   iManufacturer = 0x0001  <Arduino (www.arduino.cc)>
   iProduct = 0x0002  <retrieving string failed>
   iSerialNumber = 0x00dc  <75833353934351E05231>
   bNumConfigurations = 0x0001

...
> As HPS noted in the first place check if you have valid permissions 
> that allow you to read/write from/to usb device. I did a hint at the 
> OpenOCD port:
> 
> /usr/ports/devel/openocd/pkg-message
> 
> To allow an ordinary user to acces any of the the hotplug USB
> interface add him/her to the operator group  (pw groupmod operator -m
> username), then setup the devfs subsystem by adding these lines to
> the following files:
> 
> ***/etc/devfs.rules: [localrules=10] add path 'ugen*' mode 0660 group
> operator add path 'usb/*'  mode 0660 group operator add path 'usb'
> mode 0770 group operator
> 
> ***/etc/rc.conf: devfs_system_ruleset="localrules"

$ cat /etc/rc.conf | grep devfs
# allow local rules as specified in /etc/devfs.rules (5)
devfs_system_ruleset="localrules"

$ cat /etc/devfs.rules
# Allow operator group to mount USB devices
[localrules=5]
add path 'da*' mode 0660 group operator
# for arduino hotplug USB
add path 'ugen*' mode 0660 group operator
add path 'usb/*' mode 0660 group operator
add path 'usb' mode 0770 group operator

Do I need to restart after changing devfs.rules?
That would be a bit painful at the moment; already works for
devices like camera and usb sticks but they are da* devices.

> I use MINICOM as the Terminal emulator. Type Ctrl+A then Z for
> command menu. Note that you will have to create a configuration for a
> given port in the first place (as root type `minicom -s /dev/cuaU0`
> set valid port name and parameters then save as the default
> configuration for that port).

I don't understand the need for MINICOM.  I currently use xterm.
Will that work for the print output?

> I did not use that particular Arduino utility, but there may be a 
> chance that it was written for Linux and it may suggest port name
> like /dev/ttyUSB0 instead /dev/cuaU0 as it is used in FreeBSD.

The "Serial Port" menu item is greyed out, as if it found none.
When I plug in the arduino, there are 7 new entries in /dev:
$ diff dev_noarduino.txt dev_arduino.txt
29a30,32
> cuaU0
> cuaU0.init
> cuaU0.lock
81a85,87
> ttyU0
> ttyU0.init
> ttyU0.lock
106a113
> ugen6.2

> In general on FreeBSD COM port over USB (aka Virtual-COM-Port) is 
> handled by `ucom` kernel module (type `kldstat` to list loaded
> kernel modules), also it may use `umodem` or even `u3g` module. Those
> modules are loaded by `devd` system daemon based on USB descriptors
> when you plug a device. I just found a bug in pyOCD (Python module
> for ARM CPU debug) that prevents running GDB Server when `ucom`
> module is loaded for the VCP port on that board. pyOCD tries to
> unload the kernel module by default to gain access to the VCP using
> LibUSB but it lacks permissions to do so and the whole program stops
> with an exception. In that case simply unload selected modules and
> `service devd stop` for the time of testing. This may be also the
> case for you: 1. You lack permissions to access a resource so
> temporary try run as root and see if that works. 2. You may require
> some component that is already taken by other service/application.

$ kldstat
Id Refs Address            Size     Name
  1   13 0xffffffff80200000 206c860  kernel
  2    1 0xffffffff8226e000 15cf0    fuse.ko
  3    1 0xffffffff82421000 2408     ums.ko
  4    1 0xffffffff82424000 76cc     tmpfs.ko
  5    1 0xffffffff8242c000 1bc0     umodem.ko
  6    1 0xffffffff8242e000 3c58     ucom.ko

I don't think I can run arduino as root as I can't connect to X as root;
do I need to reboot for the /etc/devfs.rules to take effect?
(will have to do some cleanup before trying that)

Thanks,

Gary