Modem configuration

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Modem types

ISA Modems

ISA hardware modems are generally set to specific IRQ's and I/O ports by jumpers. If you are having trouble getting the modem detected, make sure of the following:

Confirm the settings. Most ISA modems should be set to ttyS1
Disable serial port 2 in the bios. Make sure serial port 1 does not conflict.
Reserve IRQ 3 for Legacy equipment in the PnP/PCI settings
Remember to set up the /dev/modem link

ln -s /dev/ttyS1 /dev/modem

PCI hardware modem (ttyS14)

If the modem isn't found. or, modem shows up on the "serial" step in basiccheck (at ttyS14), but it doesn't respond when tested with the dialer. and anyway, what the heck is ttyS14? or - if the modem isn't found in the serial step (you only have one serial port detected), you can check if this applies using dmesg. try

guest@freekbox:~$ dmesg | grep ttyS | less

(this searches dmesg for lines that contain the string ttyS) and see if you have a line that refers to ttyS14. If you do, this is your issue.
solution: To talk to this modem, you gotta create ttyS14:

guest@freekbox:~$ su
freekbox:/home/guest# cd /dev
freekbox:/dev# MAKEDEV ttyS14
freekbox:/dev# ln -s ttyS14 modem

Linmodems

Our freekboxes can now deal with pci software modems, but only pctel and lucent (sometimes called agere).

To get them to work, su to root and:

cd /opt
dpkg -i p<tab> (for pctel modems)
    OR
dpkg -i l<tab> (for lucent modems)

and that will install the drivers, set up the modem link, and have you on your way. (sorry i didn't fill in the names of those files, but tab-completion is just so easy!).

if it complains of any errors, it's likely you have one of the few unsupported models within those manufacturers, so go ahead and try a different one.

Are you still having trouble? Are you sure your modem is even being recognized? Try:

guest@freekbox:~$ lspci

This will tell you what hardware is available on each of your PCI slots. If you don't see a "Communication controller" (or something that is obviously a modem), chances are your hardware is not being recognized and you either have a bad modem, or a bad PCI slot. So try a different slot first, then try a different modem.

Updated kernels

get the code:

 svn co svn+ssh://svn.freegeek.org/svn/freegeek-extras/trunk freegeek-extras/trunk

edit the dependencies to reflect the new kernel. make the packages:

 debuild -I.svn -uc -us

put them on our server:

 TODO

Detecting

To detect a modem and make sure it is working, use wvdialconf. The canonical way to use it is to log in as root on a terminal and run "wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf" but for our purposes, you can just run "wvdialconf test" as a normal user. This will probe the serial ports, starting with whatever is linked to /dev/modem. It works with ISA modems, PCI hardware modems and linmodems. It is also the back end for gnome-ppp.

On an older box without gnome-ppp, you can open kppp, click "configure", modems, geekmodem, edit, device, query modem. However, probably the best thing is to install gnome-ppp (apt-get install gnome-ppp) and then follow the above instructions.