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2 IBM 3270 Display System support
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5 This file describes the driver that supports local channel attachment
6 of IBM 3270 devices. It consists of three sections:
16 This paper describes installing and operating 3270 devices under
17 Linux/390. A 3270 device is a block-mode rows-and-columns terminal of
18 which I'm sure hundreds of millions were sold by IBM and clonemakers
19 twenty and thirty years ago.
21 You may have 3270s in-house and not know it. If you're using the
22 VM-ESA operating system, define a 3270 to your virtual machine by using
23 the command "DEF GRAF <hex-address>" This paper presumes you will be
24 defining four 3270s with the CP/CMS commands:
31 Your network connection from VM-ESA allows you to use x3270, tn3270, or
32 another 3270 emulator, started from an xterm window on your PC or
33 workstation. With the DEF GRAF command, an application such as xterm,
34 and this Linux-390 3270 driver, you have another way of talking to your
37 This paper covers installation of the driver and operation of a
44 You install the driver by installing a patch, doing a kernel build, and
45 running the configuration script (config3270.sh, in this directory).
47 WARNING: If you are using 3270 console support, you must rerun the
48 configuration script every time you change the console's address (perhaps
49 by using the condev= parameter in silo's /boot/parmfile). More precisely,
50 you should rerun the configuration script every time your set of 3270s,
51 including the console 3270, changes subchannel identifier relative to
52 one another. ReIPL as soon as possible after running the configuration
53 script and the resulting /tmp/mkdev3270.
55 If you have chosen to make tub3270 a module, you add a line to a
56 configuration file under /etc/modprobe.d/. If you are working on a VM
57 virtual machine, you can use DEF GRAF to define virtual 3270 devices.
59 You may generate both 3270 and 3215 console support, or one or the
60 other, or neither. If you generate both, the console type under VM is
61 not changed. Use #CP Q TERM to see what the current console type is.
62 Use #CP TERM CONMODE 3270 to change it to 3270. If you generate only
63 3270 console support, then the driver automatically converts your console
64 at boot time to a 3270 if it is a 3215.
66 In brief, these are the steps:
68 1. Install the tub3270 patch
69 2. (If a module) add a line to a file in `/etc/modprobe.d/*.conf`
70 3. (If VM) define devices with DEF GRAF
74 To test that everything works, assuming VM and x3270,
76 1. Bring up an x3270 window.
77 2. Use the DIAL command in that window.
78 3. You should immediately see a Linux login screen.
80 Here are the installation steps in detail:
82 1. The 3270 driver is a part of the official Linux kernel
83 source. Build a tree with the kernel source and any necessary
87 (If you wish to disable 3215 console support, edit
88 .config; change CONFIG_TN3215's value to "n";
89 and rerun "make oldconfig".)
94 2. (Perform this step only if you have configured tub3270 as a
95 module.) Add a line to a file `/etc/modprobe.d/*.conf` to automatically
96 load the driver when it's needed. With this line added, you will see
97 login prompts appear on your 3270s as soon as boot is complete (or
98 with emulated 3270s, as soon as you dial into your vm guest using the
99 command "DIAL <vmguestname>"). Since the line-mode major number is
100 227, the line to add should be::
102 alias char-major-227 tub3270
104 3. Define graphic devices to your vm guest machine, if you
105 haven't already. Define them before you reboot (reipl):
112 4. Reboot. The reboot process scans hardware devices, including
113 3270s, and this enables the tub3270 driver once loaded to respond
114 correctly to the configuration requests of the next step. If
115 you have chosen 3270 console support, your console now behaves
116 as a 3270, not a 3215.
118 5. Run the 3270 configuration script config3270. It is
119 distributed in this same directory, Documentation/s390, as
120 config3270.sh. Inspect the output script it produces,
121 /tmp/mkdev3270, and then run that script. This will create the
122 necessary character special device files and make the necessary
123 changes to /etc/inittab.
125 Then notify /sbin/init that /etc/inittab has changed, by issuing
126 the telinit command with the q operand::
128 cd Documentation/s390
133 This should be sufficient for your first time. If your 3270
134 configuration has changed and you're reusing config3270, you
135 should follow these steps::
137 Change 3270 configuration
139 Run config3270 and /tmp/mkdev3270
142 Here are the testing steps in detail:
144 1. Bring up an x3270 window, or use an actual hardware 3278 or
145 3279, or use the 3270 emulator of your choice. You would be
146 running the emulator on your PC or workstation. You would use
147 the command, for example::
149 x3270 vm-esa-domain-name &
151 if you wanted a 3278 Model 4 with 43 rows of 80 columns, the
152 default model number. The driver does not take advantage of
155 The screen you should now see contains a VM logo with input
156 lines near the bottom. Use TAB to move to the bottom line,
157 probably labeled "COMMAND ===>".
159 2. Use the DIAL command instead of the LOGIN command to connect
160 to one of the virtual 3270s you defined with the DEF GRAF
163 dial my-vm-guest-name
165 3. You should immediately see a login prompt from your
166 Linux-390 operating system. If that does not happen, you would
167 see instead the line "DIALED TO my-vm-guest-name 0620".
169 To troubleshoot: do these things.
171 A. Is the driver loaded? Use the lsmod command (no operands)
172 to find out. Probably it isn't. Try loading it manually, with
173 the command "insmod tub3270". Does that command give error
174 messages? Ha! There's your problem.
176 B. Is the /etc/inittab file modified as in installation step 3
177 above? Use the grep command to find out; for instance, issue
178 "grep 3270 /etc/inittab". Nothing found? There's your
181 C. Are the device special files created, as in installation
182 step 2 above? Use the ls -l command to find out; for instance,
183 issue "ls -l /dev/3270/tty620". The output should start with the
184 letter "c" meaning character device and should contain "227, 1"
185 just to the left of the device name. No such file? no "c"?
186 Wrong major number? Wrong minor number? There's your
189 D. Do you get the message::
191 "HCPDIA047E my-vm-guest-name 0620 does not exist"?
193 If so, you must issue the command "DEF GRAF 620" from your VM
194 3215 console and then reboot the system.
201 The driver defines three areas on the 3270 screen: the log area, the
202 input area, and the status area.
204 The log area takes up all but the bottom two lines of the screen. The
205 driver writes terminal output to it, starting at the top line and going
206 down. When it fills, the status area changes from "Linux Running" to
207 "Linux More...". After a scrolling timeout of (default) 5 sec, the
208 screen clears and more output is written, from the top down.
210 The input area extends from the beginning of the second-to-last screen
211 line to the start of the status area. You type commands in this area
212 and hit ENTER to execute them.
214 The status area initializes to "Linux Running" to give you a warm
215 fuzzy feeling. When the log area fills up and output awaits, it
216 changes to "Linux More...". At this time you can do several things or
217 nothing. If you do nothing, the screen will clear in (default) 5 sec
218 and more output will appear. You may hit ENTER with nothing typed in
219 the input area to toggle between "Linux More..." and "Linux Holding",
220 which indicates no scrolling will occur. (If you hit ENTER with "Linux
221 Running" and nothing typed, the application receives a newline.)
223 You may change the scrolling timeout value. For example, the following
226 echo scrolltime=60 > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
228 changes the scrolling timeout value to 60 sec. Set scrolltime to 0 if
229 you wish to prevent scrolling entirely.
231 Other things you may do when the log area fills up are: hit PA2 to
232 clear the log area and write more output to it, or hit CLEAR to clear
233 the log area and the input area and write more output to the log area.
235 Some of the Program Function (PF) and Program Attention (PA) keys are
236 preassigned special functions. The ones that are not yield an alarm
239 PA1 causes a SIGINT to the currently running application. You may do
240 the same thing from the input area, by typing "^C" and hitting ENTER.
242 PA2 causes the log area to be cleared. If output awaits, it is then
243 written to the log area.
245 PF3 causes an EOF to be received as input by the application. You may
246 cause an EOF also by typing "^D" and hitting ENTER.
248 No PF key is preassigned to cause a job suspension, but you may cause a
249 job suspension by typing "^Z" and hitting ENTER. You may wish to
250 assign this function to a PF key. To make PF7 cause job suspension,
251 execute the command::
253 echo pf7=^z > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
255 If the input you type does not end with the two characters "^n", the
256 driver appends a newline character and sends it to the tty driver;
257 otherwise the driver strips the "^n" and does not append a newline.
258 The IBM 3215 driver behaves similarly.
260 Pf10 causes the most recent command to be retrieved from the tube's
261 command stack (default depth 20) and displayed in the input area. You
262 may hit PF10 again for the next-most-recent command, and so on. A
263 command is entered into the stack only when the input area is not made
264 invisible (such as for password entry) and it is not identical to the
265 current top entry. PF10 rotates backward through the command stack;
266 PF11 rotates forward. You may assign the backward function to any PF
267 key (or PA key, for that matter), say, PA3, with the command::
269 echo -e pa3=\\033k > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
271 This assigns the string ESC-k to PA3. Similarly, the string ESC-j
272 performs the forward function. (Rationale: In bash with vi-mode line
273 editing, ESC-k and ESC-j retrieve backward and forward history.
274 Suggestions welcome.)
276 Is a stack size of twenty commands not to your liking? Change it on
277 the fly. To change to saving the last 100 commands, execute the
280 echo recallsize=100 > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
282 Have a command you issue frequently? Assign it to a PF or PA key! Use
285 echo pf24="mkdir foobar; cd foobar" > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
287 to execute the commands mkdir foobar and cd foobar immediately when you
288 hit PF24. Want to see the command line first, before you execute it?
289 Use the -n option of the echo command::
291 echo -n pf24="mkdir foo; cd foo" > /proc/tty/driver/tty3270
295 Happy testing! I welcome any and all comments about this document, the
298 Dick Hitt <rbh00@utsglobal.com>