I hope this forum is still alive. I just found this and have followed the procedure for installing Prolific USB to Serial Adapter very carefully several times with mixed results. Usually when I do this the serial port does't work. The messages I get at end of dmesg are:
[ 4955.155747] usb 7-1: USB disconnect, device number 6
[ 4955.156133] generic ttyUSB0: generic converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[ 4955.156174] usbserial_generic 7-1:1.0: device disconnected
[ 4964.354998] usb 7-1: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ohci-pci
[ 4964.522265] usb 7-1: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[ 4964.522277] usb 7-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 4964.522285] usb 7-1: Product: USB-Serial Controller D
[ 4964.522291] usb 7-1: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[ 4964.524394] usbserial_generic 7-1:1.0: The "generic" usb-serial driver is only for testing and one-off prototypes.
[ 4964.524404] usbserial_generic 7-1:1.0: Tell
linux-usb@vger.kernel.org to add your device to a proper driver.
[ 4964.524409] usbserial_generic 7-1:1.0: generic converter detected
[ 4964.524577] usb 7-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0
When I'm able to get it to work, the messages look like this:
[ 5839.547389] usb 7-1: USB disconnect, device number 7
[ 5842.045777] usb 7-1: new full-speed USB device number 8 using ohci-pci
[ 5842.213072] usb 7-1: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[ 5842.213085] usb 7-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 5842.213092] usb 7-1: Product: USB-Serial Controller D
[ 5842.213098] usb 7-1: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[ 5842.254841] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
[ 5842.254887] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[ 5842.254916] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[ 5842.259085] usbcore: registered new interface driver pl2303
[ 5842.259108] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for pl2303
[ 5842.259153] pl2303 7-1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[ 5842.280308] usb 7-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
hec@SpockU:/dev$[/size]
The difference seems to be that in the later case that works, the specific pl2303 is detected where as in the case above it's just a generic version of usbserial? Anyway I can't figure out why sometimes I get the later but most of the time I get the former.
Also, I have the statement usbserial vendor=0x067b product=0x2303 in /etc/modules but even when I have the port working (case 2 above) the change is not persistent across reboots and I have to start all over again.
I would really appreciate someone pointing out what must be obvious but that I can't seem to overcome despite many hours of work.
Thanks in advance.