help installing modem in rh6

your modem can't be using LPT1, because that is a parallel port, and modem is a serial device.  i suspect it's either COM1 or COM2.  
as far as i know, Linux doesn't care what brand of modem you're using.  just plug your modem into COM1(cua0) or COM2 (cua1), and use can use kppp to probe for it.

another way would be creating a link that points to your com port. if it's com1(cua0), running as root under /dev directory, do a ln -s /dev/cua0 modem
that would create a link that points to your modem. if it's cua1, substitude cua0 with it.

hope that helps.

Maybe I wasn't clear. The modem (in Win98 is set to LPT1 IRQ7 and some mem addr.) In linux when I query(with kppp config) cua0 or cua 1 I get nothing. When I query ttyS1 or ttyS0 I get modem ready and it starts sending AT1, AT2 and so on. The query results are blank across the board. Just out of curiousity;there is two connections at the back of this modem.

1. is labelled serial port and needs a male connecting end. 2. is labelled parallel port and uses a female connecting end.

I currently have a cable that has
1.female connecting end which I have plugged into the parallel port of the modem and 1. male connecting end which I have plugged into the the port on the back of the computer.

Should I get a cable that has two male connecting ends and plug one end into the computer and the other end into the serial port connection on the back of the modem?  

The modem works fine with the present setup in Win98.

J

I think you will have to set up one of the default com ports 1-4 to use the resources of the lpt port, or set up an additional com port . Take a look at your rc.serial script that sets the com port values. You can add a line configuring say Com 4 to use irq 7, port 378, and have it run at boot up. Look at dmesg | more to see if the system is recognizing the port, and then try using kppp or minicom to get a response. As for the cable, I would assume that it is just a serial cable using the lpt port, but you could use the serial port and see if it makes a difference. I don't know of any serial devices in linux that use dma or a second i/o port, so that probably will not work. All in all, I wouldn't spend much time trying to configure a slow, non standard piece of hardware like this. You can get a hardware based internal 56k for under $60, and  you could still use the 28.8 in windows if you wanted to

And yes I'm gonna do exactly that but, I won't have the money 'till the end of september. In the meantime I would like to get connected with linux.

>You can add a line configuring say Com 4 to use irq 7, >port 378, and have it run at boot up

So I just assign the resources I need to any com port curently not in use/ in existence and hope linux will find the modem this way?

Come on guys, it's an external modem and it's NOT a winmodem.Everything I'm reading is telling me this should be a calkwalk. Should I maybe buy a cable with 25pin male at one end and 9pin female at the other?That way I could connect the modem to an actual serial port instead of the parallel port.Someone must know if this should  work.

J

In windows I use a 56k( with the installation of linux I discovered that the salesman lied to me when he said it wasn't a winmodem and it was not marked winmodem on the box: shouldn't that be illegal? ) modem in windows. I only setup the external in windows just to make sure it works. It does.

J

Jatcan
You should be able to get your modem working using your parallel port - as far as I am aware everything should work just the same as if you were using the serial port. You mentioned kppp - I don't have any experience of this and you might not be able to use it if it won't give you the option of specifying the correct device to use for your modem, but that's not really a big problem.
Anyway, have a look at 'cat /proc/devices' to see whether the kernel has recognised and setup your parallel port. Actually the new kernels (2.2.x) use a different system for parallel ports which I haven't used yet but this should still be relevant. If you don't see a reference to your par port in /proc/devices then your kernel may not have support built in so you will need to use modules. Have a look at 'dmesg | more' to see whether your kernel finds a par port at boot time.
If your parallel port is not set up properly then you will need to do it manually. The best thing probably would be to look at the Printing-HOWTO, as this contains quite a lot of information on setting up parallel port devices in Linux. Incidentally, do you have a parallel printer, and if so do you have more than one external parallel socket on your computer? If you use more than one parallel device then this can cause problems although it should be possible to sort them out if you are running a 2.2 kernel.
If your par port is set up OK then try running 'seyon -modems /dev/lpX' where X is either 0,1 or 2 depending on what you saw in /proc/devices. If you don't have seyon and X installed then you can use minicom, which is very popular I believe but I've never tried it myself. I think to use it you will need to make /dev/modem a symbolic link to /dev/lpX with 'ln -s /dev/lpX /dev/modem'.
I hope some of this waffle is useful to you

Mark

I don't have a "cat/proc/devices" directory. I'm using RH6.Does RH6 use "parport0-2 for printers or lp0-2 for printers?

Thanks,

J

I have my printer on the other machine.

J

O.k.- the modem question is moot. I've talked to the previous owner and he says the parallel port on the modem is just fine for windows but for linux it absolutely has to be hooked up to the serial port( the modem has one of each type of ports). I just got to go to the radio shack and pick up an $8.00 cable. He says it uses com1 irg 3 or 4 and everything will be o.k. once I have the cable. My mouse is using parallel port 2 irq 5 in linux(ps/2). So, for the points, mrc197 yet again has helped me the most but, I would like your answer to be for the following question(it's probably easy for you and will save me a litle reading). I've set up my dos partitions to be auto-mounted in linux. I understand everything I've done except for one thing which I either missed or it wasn't in the man. Take a gander at the following example of my fstab:

/dev/hda1      /usr/home/jon/dos/c   vfat   auto,ro  1  2

what does the 1 & 2 standfor and is it a good idea to have ro or can you think of a reason/circumstance where I might need rw. Thanks to all for your efforts. mrc197, answer these and I'll give you the points. Thanks again.

J

The fifth field in fstab is used to determine which filesystems need to be dumped. You should probably leave this value alone unless you specifically want to change it and know why. If the value is 0 then the filesystem won't be dumped.
The sixth field is used to determine the order in which fsck should check the filesystems. Your root partition should have a 1 in this field and all other partitions should have a 2 here.If there is a 0 in the sixth field then fsck will not check the partition.
You may want to have your windows partition mounted rw if you want to be able to pass files from Linux to Windows. However, if you are worried that you might accidentally delete a critical Windows file whilst in Linux then keep it ro and use dos formatted floppies to transfer the files.
By the way I still think it should be possible to use the modem on your par port but it would definitely be a lot easier to buy a serial cable instead! I have only just upgraded to RH6 (and kernel 2.2.x) myself so I haven't experimented with any of the new parallel port stuff yet. Presumably for the modem to work on your parallel port you have to have a bidirectional parallel port (EPP) and drivers that support it. I don't think the old Linux par port drivers supported bidirection but I have a feeling that the new system does. All this is just speculation though 'cause I've never had a par port modem or any device that needed a bidirectional par port.

Thanks mrc197.

J

Just a comment....I had all sorts of dramas getting my modem to run under Linux. (I hope you have sorted out your problems, but if not, this may help)

First, My com ports weren't initially configured in my BIOS. after fixing that up, Linux still said it couldnt find any modem on cua0 or cua1.

Under Windows, it says that the modem runs under Com2...
As it turns out (and I am still kinda new to this) the modem was actually on cua3...Dont know how this works, but....*shrug*

mrc197

I was kinda hoping someone would offer actually. I thought it would be rude to ask here, so I didn't. I got about 4 days to work on it then I gotta do some other stuff. If you think we can give it an honest go in four days then I'm all for it. After all, the worst that can happen is I can learn something. I will email you right now.


Jatcan