[Xastir] interface failures, part 2

[Jason Winningham]

good morning/afternoon/evening all,

I'm still dealing with xastir losing the serial port at times. (a  
reminder of my issue, the actual fault is with USB problems, not with  
xastir.)

I think maybe xastir could be a bit smarter about recovery, and an  
automatic retry for devices (like server ports) would be useful. Here  
is my scenario:

- multiple USB/rs232 devices are attached to a laptop for GPS, TNC, etc.

- laptop goes to sleep (shutting down USB in the process), USB cable  
gets unplugged, Belkin USB hub dies, etc.

- xastir's connection to /dev/tty.whatever fails; this is noted, but  
no further action is taken by xastir

- laptop wakes up/USB cable gets plugged back in, no devices working  
with xastir.

- try to manually restart interface, xastir refuses to open /dev/ 
tty.whatever because "someone" has a lock file on it.

- manually rm the lock files, then start the interface in xastir.  
normal operation resumes (until the next time)


I think there are two issues with xastir here:

1 - xastir fails to recognize that _it_ created the lock file, so  
it's OK to remove it and restart the interface like I asked.  My  
feeling is this is a bug.

2 - it would be nice if I could tell xastir to automatically retry  
opening the device special file if it errors out, just like we do  
with server connections.  I guess this is a feature request.


Curt, I didn't try the error message patches you sent yet because I  
had a balloon flight and not enough time.  Are those in the latest  
CVS, or should I go ahead and patch them in?

-Jason
kg4wsv