Finding SNAPstick with a Linux client

[BarryTice]

Greetings.

I'm running Gnome under Ubuntu 8.04.

The Portal client launches without problem, however when I get the Connect window, nothing I select allows it to find the SNAPstick in my USB port.

The options listed in the Port: drop-down are:
Remote Connection...
/dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS3
/dev/ttyS2
/dev/ttyS1

If I click the Scan button, the system scans /dev/ttyS0 through /dev/ttyS255 and eventually comes back with "No SNAP Bridge Device found" as the Progress line.

The PC is an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43, if that makes any difference. Thumb drives automatically mount into the /media directory. I'm guessing that I'll need to configure something in /dev, but I'm not sure what to configure, or how to configure it.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

-- Barry

[mgenti]

Portal for Linux does not directly support the USB device due to lack of drivers for Linux. Instead you will need to convert the USB device to act like a Virtual COM Port. On a Windows PC you will need to ensure that only one Synapse USB device is plugged in. Then in the Portal command line type:
root.setup_usb_as_vcp()

[BarryTice]

Thank you for the quick response, Mark.

So, I need to connect the SNAPstick to Windows, execute that command, and then use the SNAPstick in the Linux environment.

If I wish to be able to convert the SNAPstick back to Windows, is there a corresponding root.setup_vcp_as_usb() that would need to be run first?

Thanks again.

-- Barry

[mgenti]

You can still use the SNAPstick in Windows or Linux, it will just show up as a COM port instead of a USB port.

[BarryTice]

Mark --

I inserted the SNAPstick and launched Portal in Windows (XP). I connected to the SNAPstick.

When I used the command, I was told, "Please disconnect before programming the USB" so I selected the stick node and clicked "Remove Node" and tried it again.

I received the same message, so I removed the SNAPstick and tried it again.

This gave no error message in the command line window, but the event log responded with, "Unable to open USB device."

If I insert the SNAPstick in the USB port again (in Windows), the system still finds it on USB0. So apparently it's not been converted to COM.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

[mgenti]

When you first start Portal and it scans for SNAP bridge devices, do not choose a connection just hit cancel. Then issue the command in the Portal command line window.

[BarryTice]

Thank you, Mark. That did the trick.

There are other issues now. but I will address them in another thread.

-- Barry

[kbanks]

If I wish to be able to convert the SNAPstick back to Windows, is there a corresponding root.setup_vcp_as_usb() that would need to be run first?

Look over in the script exchange if you ever need to convert the device back to "USB". (There may be a built-in command too, I don't know).

http://forums.synapse-wireless.com/showthread.php?t=143

[dogfuel]

Portal and the usb stick work fine in Windows but not LINUX ... when I issue the command above to prep it for LINUX, I get an error ...

root.setup_usb_as_vcp()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'MainFrame' object has no attribute 'setup_usb_as_vcp'Am I missing something?

Thanks!

[mgenti]

Which version of Portal are you running? It sounds like you are not running Portal 2.2.

[dogfuel]

I am running 2.2.31 on LINUX but only 2.1.22 on Windows (from where I am trying to initialize the stick) - I assume this is the problem and will check.

Thanks!