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><H1
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NAME="mobile-guide-p2c1s14-docking-station-port-replicator"
></A
>12.24. Docking Station / Port Replicator</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN3057"
></A
>12.24.1. Definitions</H2
><P
>&#13; First some definitions. There is a difference between <EM
>docking
station</EM
> and <EM
>port replicator</EM
>.
</P
><P
>&#13; I use the term <EM
>docking station</EM
> for a box which
contains slots to put some interface cards in, and space to put a
harddisk, etc. in. This box can be permanently connected to a PC. A
<EM
>port replicator</EM
> is just a copy of the laptop ports
which may be connected permanently to a PC.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN3065"
></A
>12.24.2. Other Solutions</H2
><P
>&#13; I don't use a docking station myself. They seem really expensive and I can't
see any usefulness. Alright you have to deal with some more cables, but is
it worth so much money? Docking stations are useful in an office
environment when you have a permanent network connection, or need the
docking station's expansion bus slots (e.g. for some excotic SCSI device).
</P
><P
>&#13; Also all docking stations I know are proprietary models, so if you
change your laptop you have to change this device, too. I just found
one exception a docking station which connects to your laptop via
<SPAN
CLASS="trademark"
>IrDA</SPAN
>&reg; the IRDocking IR-660 by
<A
HREF="http://www.tekram.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Tekram</A
>
. It supports these connectors: 10Base-T (RJ-45); PS/2 Keyboard; PS/2
Mouse; 25-Pin Printer Port (LPT); IR Transceiver; Power (6 VDC). So it
seems that a VGA port and a port to connect a desktop PC directly are
missing. This device should work with Linux/<SPAN
CLASS="trademark"
>IrDA</SPAN
>&reg;, though I couldn't check it out.
</P
><P
>&#13; I would prefer to buy a PC instead and connect it via
<EM
>network</EM
> to the laptop.
</P
><P
>&#13; Or use an external display, which usually works well as described above,
and an external keyboard and mouse. If your laptop supports an extra
PS/2 port you may use a cheap solution a <EM
>Y-cable</EM
>,
which connects the PS/2 port to an external keyboard and an external
monitor. Note: Your laptop probably has support for the <EM
>Y-cable</EM
>
feature, e.g. the COMPAQ Armada 1592DT.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN3077"
></A
>12.24.3. Docking Station Connection Methods</H2
><P
>&#13; AFAIK there are <EM
>four solutions</EM
> to connect a laptop
to a docking station:
</P
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>&#13; SCSI port (very seldom)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;parallel port
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;(proprietary) docking port (common)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;USB (often offered by third party manufacturers)
</P
></LI
></OL
>
</P
><P
>&#13; From Martin J. Evans
"The main problem with docking stations is getting the operating
system to detect you are docked. Fortunately,
you can examine the devices available in <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/proc</TT
>
and thus detect a docked state. With
this in mind a few simple scripts is all you need to get your machine
configured correctly in a docked state.
</P
><P
>&#13; You may want to build support for the docking station hardware as
modules instead of putting it directly into the kernel. This will save
space in your kernel but your choice probably largely depends on how
often you are docked.
</P
><P
>&#13; 1) Supporting <EM
>additional disks</EM
> on the docking
station SCSI card
</P
><P
>&#13; To my mind the best way of doing this is to:
</P
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>&#13; Either build support for the SCSI card into the kernel or build it as a module.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; Put the mount points into <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/etc/fstab</TT
> but use the
"noauto" flag to prevent them from being mounted automatically with the
<B
CLASS="command"
>mount -a</B
> flag. In this way, when you are docked you
can explicitly mount the partitions off any disk connected to the
docking station SCSI card.
</P
></LI
></OL
>
</P
><P
>&#13; 2) Supporting <EM
>additional network adaptors</EM
> in the docking station
</P
><P
>&#13; You can use a similar method to that outlined above for the graphics
card. Check the <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/proc</TT
> filesystem in your rc scripts
to see if you are docked and then set up your network connections
appropriately. "
</P
><P
>&#13; Once you determine this information, you may use a script, similar to
the following example, to configure the connection to your docking
station at startup. The script is provided by Friedhelm Kueck:
</P
><P
>&#13;
<TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="programlisting"
>&#13;# check, if laptop is in docking-station (4 <SPAN
CLASS="acronym"
>PCMCIA</SPAN
> slots available)
# or if it is standalone (2 slots available)
# Start after cardmgr has started
#
# Friedhelm Kueck mailto:fk_AT_impress.de
# 08-Sep-1998
#
# Find No. of Sockets
SOCKETS=`tail -1 /var/run/stab | cut -d ":" -f 1`
case "$SOCKETS" in
"Socket 3")
echo Laptop is in Dockingstation ...
echo Disabeling internal LCD Display for X11
echo
cp /etc/XF86Config_extern /etc/XF86Config
#
# Setup of <SPAN
CLASS="acronym"
>PCMCIA</SPAN
> Network Interface after start of cardmgr
#
echo
echo "Setting up eth0 for use at Network ..."
echo
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 10.1.9.5 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 10.1.255.255
/sbin/route add -net 10.1.0.0 gw 10.1.9.5
/sbin/route add default gw 10.1.10.1
;;
"Socket 1")
echo Laptop is standalone
echo Disabling external Monitor for X11
cp /etc/XF86Config_intern /etc/XF86Config
echo
echo Network device NOT setup
;;
esac
</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN3114"
></A
>12.24.4. Universal USB Port Replicators</H2
><P
>&#13;I have used a Typhoon USB 2.0 7in1 Docking Station made by
<A
HREF="http://www.anubisline.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Anubis</A
>
P/N 83057 to check the Linux compatibility of such devices. Actually
this device should be named port replicator, because it does not have
any extension slots.
This device doesn't have a VGA port to connect to an external
display. Only a few USB docking stations have this feature. It would
be nice to get a report whether a VGA port works or not.
Tested with laptop COMPAQ M700 (USB 1.1) and custom made kernel 2.6.1.
Note the port replicator didn't work with
an Apple PowerBook G4.
</P
><P
>&#13;How does its different ports work with Linux:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;USB 2.0 A-type downstream: works with external hard disk and mouse out of the box
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;USB 2.0 A-type downstream: see above
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;PS/2 keyboard: works out of the box
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;PS/2 mouse: works, but for 2.6 Kernels you have to specifiy
the right mouse protocol <B
CLASS="command"
>psmouse_proto=imps</B
>
(if psmouse is compiled as a module).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;serial port: tested with serial mouse, doesn't seem to work,
<B
CLASS="command"
>/dev/ttyUSB0</B
> was assigned
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;parallel port: tested, device <B
CLASS="command"
>/dev/usb/usblp0</B
> assigned, works
e.g. with HP LaserJet 2100
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;LAN: usbnet loads, device eth1 was assigned,
<B
CLASS="command"
>ifconfig</B
> or <B
CLASS="command"
>pump</B
> configures the network device
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;transfer port aka host link:
works with usbnet module, use <B
CLASS="command"
>ifconfig usb0</B
> to configure
the network interface,
(USB 1.1 host link B-type) untested
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Here is the output of <B
CLASS="command"
>dmesg</B
>
for the Typhoon port replicator:
<TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="programlisting"
>&#13;hub 1-0:1.0: new USB device on port 1, assigned address 26
hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
hub 1-1:1.0: new USB device on port 3, assigned address 27
hub 1-1.3:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-1.3:1.0: 4 ports detected
hub 1-1:1.0: new USB device on port 4, assigned address 28
eth1: register usbnet at usb-0000:00:07.2-1.4, ASIX AX8817x USB 2.0 Ethernet
hub 1-1.3:1.0: new USB device on port 1, assigned address 29
usb0: register usbnet at usb-0000:00:07.2-1.3.1, Prolific PL-2301/PL-2302
hub 1-1.3:1.0: new USB device on port 2, assigned address 30
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 30 if 0 alt 1 proto 2 vid 0x067B pid 0x2305
hub 1-1.3:1.0: new USB device on port 3, assigned address 31
pl2303 1-1.3.3:1.0: PL-2303 converter detected
usb 1-1.3.3: PL-2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0 (or usb/tts/0 for devfs)
hub 1-1.3:1.0: new USB device on port 4, assigned address 32
HID device not claimed by input or hiddev
hid: probe of 1-1.3.4:1.0 failed with error -5
input: Composite USB PS2 Converter USB to PS2 Adaptor v1.09 on usb-0000:00:07.2-1.3.4
HID device not claimed by input or hiddev
hid: probe of 1-1.3.4:1.1 failed with error -5
input: Composite USB PS2 Converter USB to PS2 Adaptor v1.09 on usb-0000:00:07.2-1.3.4
</PRE
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