============================================================================
           Perle TruePort Daemon and  Driver for Linux
           Copyright (C) 2004-2008, Perle Systems Limited
=============================================================================

  Release           : 6.2.0
  Date              : July 2008
  O/S Compatibility : Linux Versions 2.2.16 or higher, 2.4.x and 2.6.x

=============================================================================

Introduction. 
-------------

This is the readme belonging to the Trueport for Linux software. 

TruePort for Linux is a TTY serial port emulation system for the 
Perle device/terminal server families. TruePort provides a standard
TTY interface to application software which is achieved using the
TruePort serial device driver.

TruePort provides a more general interface via a fixed /dev TTY name,
this allows application software to send and receive data from ports on the
terminal server as if they were directly connected to the application server.


TruePort Full Mode protocol will allow an application to take full control of the 
remote serial port and use all functions available e.g. setting baud rates, flow
control settings and raising and lowering modem pins etc.

TruePort Lite Mode will allow an application to just transmit and receive data 
to and from the port.  Any baud rates or flow control settings must be 
configured on the terminal server before the application is started.

TruePort supports the following Perle hardware in full TruePort protocol mode:
    - IOLAN DS family
    - JetStream 8500, JetStream 4000
    - LanStream 2000
    - LinkStream 2000.

It also supports IOLAN+ and other 3rd party multi-port terminal servers in Lite
(raw) mode.

NOTE: 	
For TruePort Full Mode the JetStream 8500, JetStream 4000 and LanStream 2000 
require firmware version 2.3.3 or later and the LinkStream 2000 requires 
version 6.04 or later.

The following sections describe what you have to do to get the software running. 

Installation. 
-------------

The software consist of two parts. The part that allows a user-program
to control a fully-functional serial port is a driver in the form of a  new 
loadable kernel driver.

The other part is the daemon that handles the connection between the
kernel driver and a device/terminal server.



Installation using the .tgz file
--------------------------------

Unpack the file and goto the created directory. In the directory run 
the script:

   ./tar_install.sh
   

Kernel update
-------------

When a new kernel version is installed on the machine the TruePort rpm
package has to be reinstalled to get the correct kernel module for the
new kernel. The commands to do this are:

   cd /usr/share/doc/trueport/ptyx
   make
   make install

and 
   depmod -a
   /etc/init.d/trueport restart
or
   reboot the machine


or you can simply rebuild and reinstall the rpm package. (Keep in mind
that you'll have to build the package running on the kernel that will
eventually run it)


Problems
========
1. On systems with kernel 2.2.16 the compile of the psuedo-tty drivers will 
   produce warning about redefinition of variables. This only occurs when the 
   "module versioning support" is turned on. The drivers will still load and run 
   without any problems.


Release History
---------------

Version     Description
-------     -----------
6.2.0       * Detection and support of running TruePort Full mode with no UDP 
              protocol
            * resolved some IPv6 configuration issues
6.1.1       * Resolve kernel panic during system boot up on certain 2.6 
              kernel distributions.
6.1.0       * Added support for missing "serial driver" functions.
6.0.1       * Resolved timing issue where TruePort service would sometimes fail
              to start on bootup
6.0.0       * Added Client initiated mode, Client I/O Access, and 
              Packet Forwarding features.
            * Added support to specify host IP address or DNS name for
              server mode
            * Added support for 64 bit Linux Kernels

5.1.0       * Maintenance release

5.0.4       * Resolved issue with driver not compiling under kernels 2.6.16 
              and higher.

5.0.3       * Switched code to open the tty first before listening on the 
              tcp port.

5.0.2       * Added code to ptyx driver to send a line to the 
              /var/log/message file when the driver is loaded.

5.0.1       * Added hangup option to allow trueportd to close the tty 
              device whenever the TCP connection to the terminal/device 
              server is lost. 

5.0.0       * Added support for SSL connection feature. 
            * The version number jumped from 2.3 to 5.0.0 so that all 
              versions of TruePort with SSL would be at the same level.
            * The SSL feature is not supported in kernel 2.2.x. The software
              can still be installed without this feature.

2.3         * Add support for the linux kernel 2.6.
            * Add support for linux kernel 2.2.16 and above.

2.2         * Driver became an independant loadable kernel module for 
              the kernel version 2.4.x.  No need to patch and rebuild the 
              kernel. 

2.0         * Consisted of the TruePort daemon and a patch to the pty.c
              driver module in the kernel.