COPILOT Glucose Meter COM problem

[williambuell]

I am a 62 year old beginner in Ubuntu. Thanks for any help, guidance, suggestions on this problem!

I have used commands like the following to be certain that I have an active com port:
dmesg | grep ttyS
rm com1
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 com1

So I suspect the solution lies somewhere in WINE.

If all else fails I will get a USB to SERIAL converter cable and try that.

My wife has an Abbott Labs Freestyle Lite Glucose meter which uploads to a program called COPILOT via RS232. I was only able to get it to work on ONE of our three Windows XP machines. I tried all day to get it to work on a Dell XP converted to Ubuntu (Gnu/Linux) which d...oes have an RS232 and TERMINAL commands indicate that the system recognizes that COM port. I am running COPILOT with WINE (which lets Windows programs run under Ubuntu).

I have yet to master the secrets of Wine REGEDIT:

WINE Regedit

If I navigate to .wine and then to drive_c and then to windows I can issued the REGEDIT command and edit the wine registry and navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> HARDWARE -> DESCRIPTION -> SERIALCOMM

I have tried to add "COM1"="COM1" to that SERIALCOMM, and the add shows but then it disappears the next time I run REGEDIT.

I found THIS excerpt which seems pertinent:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT

I have COM1 on wine apps. I symlinked ttyS0 and added these keys

Code:
[HARDWARE\\DEVICEMAP\\SERIALCOMM]
"COM1"="COM1"
"COM2"="COM2"

But regedit deletes them.

If I do this

Code:
wine regedit serial.reg
wine regedit

I see the keys.
I open my program with regedit opened and I see com1 and com2

But If I close regedit, then keys disappears...

The EXPERT explains: It's not regedit, they are never saved.

[HKLM\HARDWARE] is a volatile registry branch - it exists in memory only and is not being saved to disk.

Just add it to ~/.wine/system.reg. Be careful editing that file, if you break it whole registry can get corrupt.

END OF EXCERPT

I DID TRY THIS:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT:
Usually with a com port it is a permissions issue. Some programs need further fixes in wine, but often if you cannot see it, it is a permissions issue. Previously you needed to add a link to the port under dos devices, but more recently it seems to auto detect ports. If desperate check that your bios has the serial port enabled, and try loging as a super user and changing the permissions to read and write for anyone on all of the serial ports (it usually reverts when you reboot):
chmod 775 /dev/ttyS*
If this fixes your problem then you know it is a permission issue and then can research how set it up with a more delicate touch.
END OF EXCERPT

In wine's system.reg way at the bottom of the file I find:

[System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Class\\ .... lots of numbers
@="Ports (Com & Lpt)"
"Class"="Image"

AND I SUSPECT that if I add something here e.g. "COM1"="COM1"
"COM2"="COM2"
then possibly my application might work and read the com port

BUT I am not certain exactly what to add.

This may be another place to add COM1 lines

win.ini

http://www.sdconsult.no/linux/wine-doc/ ... ation.html

e.g.

Com1=/dev/ttyS0
Com2=/dev/ttyS1
Com3=/dev/modem,38400
Com4=/dev/modem

I am saving COPIES of each file that I tamper with in case it becomes corrupted.

Today I will walk up the street to J&R Computers and purchase a USB to Serial converter cable and give that a try.

The glucose meter is Abbot Labs FreeStyle Lite
The program in question is
COPILOT HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
1: AbbottHandler.HA Ver: 2.1.1.538

Importer Version: 3.1.0.504

Product name:
Version: US
Internal version: <info not available>.<info not available>.<info no

[Martin Gregorie]

On Fri, 2011-11-11 at 12:42 -0600, williambuell wrote:

I am a 62 year old beginner in Ubuntu. Thanks for any help, guidance, suggestions on this problem!

I have used commands like the following to be certain that I have an active com port:
dmesg | grep ttyS
rm com1
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 com1

So I suspect the solution lies somewhere in WINE.

If all else fails I will get a USB to SERIAL converter cable and try that.

My wife has an Abbott Labs Freestyle Lite Glucose meter which uploads to a program called COPILOT via RS232. I was only able to get it to work on ONE of our three Windows XP machines. I tried all day to get it to work on a Dell XP converted to Ubuntu (Gnu/Linux) which d...oes have an RS232 and TERMINAL commands indicate that the system recognizes that COM port. I am running COPILOT with WINE (which lets Windows programs run under Ubuntu).

I have yet to master the secrets of Wine REGEDIT:

WINE Regedit

If I navigate to .wine and then to drive_c and then to windows I can issued the REGEDIT command and edit the wine registry and navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> HARDWARE -> DESCRIPTION -> SERIALCOMM

I have tried to add "COM1"="COM1" to that SERIALCOMM, and the add shows but then it disappears the next time I run REGEDIT.

I found THIS excerpt which seems pertinent:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT

I have COM1 on wine apps. I symlinked ttyS0 and added these keys

Code:
[HARDWARE\\DEVICEMAP\\SERIALCOMM]
"COM1"="COM1"
"COM2"="COM2"

But regedit deletes them.

If I do this

Code:
wine regedit serial.reg
wine regedit

I see the keys.
I open my program with regedit opened and I see com1 and com2

But If I close regedit, then keys disappears...

The EXPERT explains: It's not regedit, they are never saved.

[HKLM\HARDWARE] is a volatile registry branch - it exists in memory only and is not being saved to disk.

Just add it to ~/.wine/system.reg. Be careful editing that file, if you break it whole registry can get corrupt.

END OF EXCERPT

I DID TRY THIS:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT:
Usually with a com port it is a permissions issue. Some programs need further fixes in wine, but often if you cannot see it, it is a permissions issue. Previously you needed to add a link to the port under dos devices, but more recently it seems to auto detect ports. If desperate check that your bios has the serial port enabled, and try loging as a super user and changing the permissions to read and write for anyone on all of the serial ports (it usually reverts when you reboot):
chmod 775 /dev/ttyS*
If this fixes your problem then you know it is a permission issue and then can research how set it up with a more delicate touch.
END OF EXCERPT

In wine's system.reg way at the bottom of the file I find:

[System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Class\\ .... lots of numbers
@="Ports (Com & Lpt)"
"Class"="Image"

AND I SUSPECT that if I add something here e.g. "COM1"="COM1"
"COM2"="COM2"
then possibly my application might work and read the com port

BUT I am not certain exactly what to add.

This may be another place to add COM1 lines

win.ini

http://www.sdconsult.no/linux/wine-doc/ ... ation.html

e.g.

Com1=/dev/ttyS0
Com2=/dev/ttyS1
Com3=/dev/modem,38400
Com4=/dev/modem

I am saving COPIES of each file that I tamper with in case it becomes corrupted.

Today I will walk up the street to J&R Computers and purchase a USB to Serial converter cable and give that a try.

The glucose meter is Abbot Labs FreeStyle Lite
The program in question is
COPILOT HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
1: AbbottHandler.HA Ver: 2.1.1.538

Importer Version: 3.1.0.504

Product name:
Version: US
Internal version: <info not available>.<info not available>.<info no

[Martin Gregorie]

On Fri, 2011-11-11 at 12:42 -0600, williambuell wrote:

I am a 62 year old beginner in Ubuntu. Thanks for any help, guidance, suggestions on this problem!

I have used commands like the following to be certain that I have an active com port:
dmesg | grep ttyS

This won't necessarily tell you anything useful for several reasons. The
prime one is that the default kernel parameters always
create /dev/ttyS[0-3] regardless of whether your computer has any serial
ports or not. The secondary reason is that, some time back you were
right and reading through /var/log/messages showed serial ports
(referred to as UARTS and normally with a hardware type of 16550) but
more recent kernels don't do this - probably since UDEV device
management became the norm. Neither of my systems (a laptop with serial
ports, the other with 6 serial ports installed) give any grep hits for
ttyS, UART or 16550 regardless of whether I use dmesg to feed grep or
simply run

grep ttyS /var/log/messages*

The best way I know to find real serial ports is to use setserial with
the -a option, which tells it to report on the state of the port without
doing anything else. Here are a couple of examples:

The first is on the machine with serial ports installed:
# setserial -a /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
closing_wait: 3000
Flags: spd_normal skip_test

The second is on the laptop, which has no serial ports:
# setserial -a /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
closing_wait: 3000
Flags: spd_normal skip_test

The clue is the on the first line of setserial output: if it says "UART:
unknown" then you're looking at one of the kernel's imaginary serial
ports while if it says "UART: 16550A" or similar, you've found one which
is mapped onto actual physical hardware and which, hopefully, has an
accessible D-9 connector attached to it.

I'm able to use any of my serial ports (/dev/ttyS[0-5]) from a Wine
application without needing any symlinks: the application can find them
directly, but the same application has never been able to find a known
good USB serial adapter (supplied by pfranc some time back and used
successfully with the Linux programs kermit and minicom) but, of course,
ymmv.


Martin

[Martin Gregorie]

On Fri, 2011-11-11 at 19:39 +0000, Martin Gregorie wrote:

I'm able to use any of my serial ports (/dev/ttyS[0-5]) from a Wine
application without needing any symlinks: the application can find them
directly, but the same application has never been able to find a known
good USB serial adapter (supplied by pfranc some time back and used
successfully with the Linux programs kermit and minicom) but, of course,
ymmv.

I should have added that serial adapter cards are available and not
particularly expensive: if you have an unused adapter slot you may be
better off fitting one of those instead of buying a USB adapter.


Martin

[vitamin]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> HARDWARE -> DESCRIPTION -> SERIALCOMM

I have tried to add "COM1"="COM1" to that SERIALCOMM, and the add shows but then it disappears the next time I run REGEDIT.

Correct. That branch (LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware) is a volatile branch - it's not persistent and exists in wineserver's memory only. This also means it's not being saved to disk.

[System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Class\\ .... lots of numbers
@="Ports (Com & Lpt)"
"Class"="Image"

AND I SUSPECT that if I add something here e.g. "COM1"="COM1"
"COM2"="COM2"
then possibly my application might work and read the com port

BUT I am not certain exactly what to add.

Modifying registry files directly on disk without using regedit is highly discouraged. Basically you break it you own it.

The mandatory warning aside, you are on the right track. Wineserver won't turn regular registry branch into a volatile if it already exists. Numbers mean last time modified. You can copy them from any other branch.

This may be another place to add COM1 lines
win.ini

Doubt it's your problem.