Dialogic Support Helpweb
Dialogic® Signaling and SS7 Products
Identifying signaling driver errors: open failed
Symptom:
The following output is seen when running gctload:
"open failed (failed open board 0xffffffff)"
"failed - open driver failed"
Reason For The Issue:
The Septel driver is not running on the host server.
Fix / Solution
The software manual lists the following steps to start the driver on Windows®-based operating systems.
The device driver is currently installed as ’Manual’; therefore, it must be manually started by a user with ’Administrator’ privilege using the following procedure:
1) Select the ’Control Panel’ (Start->Settings->Control Panel).
2) Select the ’System’ icon. In the "system properties", select the ’Hardware’ tab and then select "Device manager". A ’tree’ of device nodes will be presented.
3) From the toolbar select "View -> ShowHiddenDevices": Open the "Non Plug and Play Drivers" node/branch. The Septel driver should be displayed.
4) Right click on the "Septel" driver and select "Properties" and then select the ’Driver’ tab
5) The driver can be started immediately by selecting "start" in the "current status" field.
If, however, your Device Manager contains an entry under "Other Devices" for a "? Network Controller", then you will need to issue the command "net start septel" from a command console window (dos box) every time your server is rebooted.
An additional clue that the signaling board driver was not installed can be seen if the server displays a new hardware dialog box when the server is booted. Although you will still have to manually start the signaling driver, you can eliminate this new hardware message by performing the following steps:
The Windows® 2000* system may fail to fully recognize that the board is controlled by the driver. It may consequently produce an "Install Wizard" window for each board that is present at system boot. This "Install Wizard" window may be quit without incident; however, the user may choose to use the following work around to prevent the "Install Wizard" window being presented, thereby removing the need for manual intervention:
1) Select the ’Control Panel’ (Start->Settings->Control Panel).
2) Select the ’System’ icon. In "system properties", select the ’Hardware’ tab and then select "Device manager". A ’tree’ of device nodes will be presented.
3) Open the "Other Devices" branch in the ’tree’ of device nodes. One "Network Controller" will be listed for each installed Dialogic® SS7 board.
Note: additional “Network Controllers” may be listed for other non-WDM cards located in the system, in which case the user will need to identify which belongs to each resource.
4) "Disable" and then "enable" each "Network Controller". This can be achieved by right clicking on the device.
5) Reboot the system. The "Install Wizard" window will no longer be presented for the device.
The same error messages will be displayed when running gctload on Linux systems.
"open failed (failed open board 0xffffffff)"
"failed - open driver failed"
Use the following command to determine if the signaling driver is running on a Linux platform:
dmesg | more
An example of messages written to the system log by the driver is:
SeptelcP/SeptelPCI V0.03
Copyright (C) 2000 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Bus mastering enabled
Found 2 boards
If the results do not match the display above, revisit your driver build and installation steps.
Windows®-based operating systems can be configured to start the Septel driver when the server is booted. To configure the server to start the driver, perform the following steps:
1) Open the control panel and click on the system icon
2) Select the hardware tab and then select the device configuration button
3) Using the drop down menus at the top of the screen, select view->show hidden devices
4) Select the "Septel" driver from the list of "Non-Plug and Play Devices"
5) On the driver page, change the driver load option from "on demand" to either "automatic" or "boot"
6) The Septel driver will then be automatically started whenever the server is booted.
Product List:
The following products are covered by this note
Dialogic® SPCI4 and SPCI 2S SS7 boards.
Glossary of Terms:
gctload - configuration load and run utility for Dialogic Septel SS7
Driver Errors - reported when gctload fails to run
Operating Systems - Windows® and Linux
