Crystalfontz CFA 735 and serial device

[vainvain]

Hi everyone!

I'm a new user of FreeNAS and i made my ows NAS config witch include a CrystalFontz CFA 735.
But i am in trouble making it working with FreeNAS 9.2.1.4.1 and lcdproc 0.5.6 as my device is not recognised as a serial device.

When i connect my CFA 735, i've got the console message:
ugen0.2: <Crystalfontz america> at usbus0

i've read that it need the uplcom driver to create a serial device like cuau0 but this module is already included in the kernel of FreeNAS.

I've tried to connect my CFA735 to a freeBSD and it is immediatly recognised as a USB and a serial device and work properly whith Lcdproc.

Does someone have an idea of how to make it working on FreeNAS?

Thanks for your help

 

[cyberjock]

Few comments:

1. I have no clue what a CrystalFontz CFA 735 is and since you didn't say what it is, I lost interest quickly.
2. If this isn't stuff you'd expect to find in a standard server, it probably won't work on FreeNAS without significant modifications(and probably recompiling FreeNAS). If you do get this working you could probably get your changes merged in github so that it's supported for others.

 

[vainvain]

Thanks for responding cyberjack.

The CFA 735 is a USB LCD display but it is designed to work like a serial device.

 

[pirateghost]

fixed your thread title because it was horrible to try and read...

 

[krikboh]

What are you expecting to display on an LCD from FreeNAS?


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[vainvain]

The aim of the LCD is to display system information (when used with LCDProc Software) like lan config, volume use, proc use, ...
The other thing you can do is to create tasks like USB stick or USB HDD dump without the need to connect to the GUI.
Lots of NAS servers have this kind of screen and functions (Qnap, Thecus, WD, ...)

 

[krikboh]

I understand the functionality of LCDProc, but are you certain it will run on FreeNAS?


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[vainvain]

I've already installed LCDProc on FreeNAS and i am able to run the LCDd daemon but the device i pointed to (ugen0.2) does not work and i have no error message.

On FreeBSD, when i connect the LCD display, 2 devices are created (ugen0.2 and cuaU0) and i can communicate with it using cuaU0 but on freeNAS, only 1 device (ugen0.2) is created.

I have read on the Net that ugenx.x devices refer to USB and cuaUx refer to serial devices.
i have olso read that when you use a device working with a serial over USB interface, the uplcom module is in charge of creating the serial device when it detects this kind of interface.
But that does not seem to be done when i connect my LCD to FreeNAS and i don't anderstand why.

Hope you see better what i try to explain

 

[krikboh]

Uplcom is specific to products using the Prolific chip for serial over USB. Depends on what Crystalfontz uses. Here is what I found for FreeNAS USB serial
# USB Serial devices
device ucom # Generic com ttys
device uark # Technologies ARK3116 based serial adapters
device ubsa # Belkin F5U103 and compatible serial adapters
device uftdi # For FTDI usb serial adapters
device uipaq # Some WinCE based devices
device uplcom # Prolific PL-2303 serial adapters
device uslcom # SI Labs CP2101/CP2102 serial adapters
device uvisor # Visor and Palm devices
device uvscom # USB serial support for DDI pocket's PHS



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[vainvain]

Thanks for this information.
For the moment, i don't know which adapter is built in the screen because it is not written in the doc.
That's why i decided to proceed by comparison with FreeBSD as i anderstand that FreeNAS is based on it.
I will make more researches to find if i can find more information about that