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SmartLink SmartPCI (Winmodem)
Reviews Views Date of last review
9 40517 03-13-2006
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Recommended By Average Price Average Rating
56% of reviewers $17.50 5.7



Description: All SmartPCI and USB modems from SmartLink (http://www.smlink.com) are Winmodems, but are supported. You may download the drivers from:
http://www.smlink.com/main/index1.php?ln=en&main_id=32
Make sure that you either have the kernel source installed, or that you modify the makefile so that the INCLUDES_PATH points to your includes (usually /usr/include).
Good luck!
--Taj
Keywords: SmartPCI SmartLink Intel 537 Winmodem SIS
/sbin/lspci output: 00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Intel 537 [56k Winmodem] (rev a0)
Connection Type: PCI


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Old 12-04-2003, 01:05 PM   #1
amos
 
Registered: Dec 2002
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 221

Rep: Reputation:
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 10

Kernel (uname -r): 2.4.21
Distribution: Slackware 9.0



If you are using a computer with an onboard SiS 7012 soundcard then you need to download the slmdm 2.7.10.tar.gz/bz2 tar ball, as the others I've tried seem to have some incompatability with the sound card.

Cheers
Amos
 
Old 12-04-2003, 02:52 PM   #2
tmorton
 
Registered: Jan 2003
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 198

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Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 10

Kernel (uname -r): 2.4.22
Distribution: Mandrake 9.2, RedHat 8, Slackware 9.0/9.2


Yes, also if you've got a Sager laptop with this modem, you'll need to enable ACPI support (e.g, rebuild your kernel).
--Taj
 
Old 02-04-2005, 01:46 AM   #3
JeanBrownHarrel
 
Registered: Sep 2004
Distribution: Ubuntu Linux 12.04 [64-bit version] THE BEST!!!
Posts: 50

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Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 1

Kernel (uname -r): 2.6.5-1.358
Distribution: Fedora Core 2 [32-bit version]


I have tried to install the software for this winmodem but it will not work under Linux; only under Windoze. I have tried everything and nothing works. The documentation from Smartlink is worthless as is this so-called "modem" and the software. All is NO GOOD!!! Save your money and buy an external serial-port controller-based modem or buy US Robotics internal PCI 56K V.92 Performance Pro modem that works great!!! I highly recommend you to avoid the Smartlink "modems" and get the one I mentioned as Smartlink products are worthless and useless. I have a Smartlink 56K PCI winmodem that is supposed to work under Linux but it does NOT; it ONLY works under Windoze. The Performance Pro modem [a REAL modem!!!] is recognized by Linux as /dev/ttyS4 but you have to make a symbolic link of /dev/ttyS4 with /dev/modem and it works flawlessly!!!
 
Old 02-04-2005, 03:40 AM   #4
 
Registered: Dec 1969
Posts: 0

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Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 9

Kernel (uname -r): 2.6.10-gentoo-r6
Distribution: Gentoo Linux 2004.3


Having installed drivers from net-dialup/slmodem ebuild ( http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/smartlink/ ) and kernel drivers for AC'97 codec intel8x0m (-m stands for modem, obviously) I had no problems to make modem on my Notestar notebook work.
 
Old 03-30-2005, 11:11 AM   #5
jsilve1
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Distribution: Red Hat/Fedora Core
Posts: 10

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Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): $19.99 | Rating: 7

Kernel (uname -r): 2.6.8.1
Distribution: CentOS 4 (equivalent to RHEL 4)


I bought this Smartlink chipset modem as a CompUSA-branded modem. (But naturally CompUSA doesn't *make* the modem -- it is just OEM rebranded).

In any case, with the stock RHEL kernel, the smartlink drivers would simply not work. They actually compiled and installed, but the softmodem utility (slmodemd) would not create a softmodem device (/dev/slamr0) and the modules would not load with modprobe.

I tried serveal kernels before finally downgrading to the vanilla kernel 2.6.8.1 from kernel.org.

More of my story can be found here:
http://www.newtnotes.com/index.php?itemid=117&catid=3

later...

-Jeff
 
Old 07-03-2005, 10:50 AM   #6
thandermax
 
Registered: Jun 2005
Distribution: OpenSUSE 10.3 , 11.2 , Solaris 10, Ubuntu 9.10
Posts: 84

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Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid? (in USD): $15.00 | Rating: 1

Kernel (uname -r): 2.6.9-1.667smp
Distribution: Fedora Cora 3 (32 bit)


WARNING : The driver provided is only for 2.4 version kernel !!! May not run in 2.6 version kernel ! Use it at your own risk .

It dosen't run in my 2.6 ver kernel , and i had to BUY ANOTHER MODEM !!!

I don't know if any driver will be written ever for 2.6 ver Kernel !!!!!

: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :
: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :: WARNING :
 
Old 07-20-2005, 08:03 AM   #7
xukosky
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Distribution: Becoming Sid
Posts: 142

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Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 7

Kernel (uname -r):
Distribution:


I have been able to get this modem work with three different distributions: Red Hat 9, Fedora Core 2 and Debian Sarge 3.1, the first with a 2.4 series kernel and the two others with a 2.6 series kernel. I haven't tried with any other distributions so 100% success except for the 2.6.10 kernel in Sarge (downgraded to 2.6.8 and now working).

This modem is a bit hard but yes, it works with Linux, if you already have it you should be able to get it working but if you don't have it maybe you should consider buying another modem because you'll find a lot of people having problems with it anywhere. Of course, serial modems are the best choice with Linux.

That's why I can' recomend it and also because I wasn't able to enable the alsa compatibility.

The good points is that the driver continues being developed (at least until a few months ago) and it works better with every version, and yes, it works with the 2.6 series kernel (i promise you).
 
Old 02-08-2006, 07:48 AM   #8
peter_89
 
Registered: Jan 2006
Distribution: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2; Slackware Linux 10.2
Posts: 215

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Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 4

Kernel (uname -r): Most Newer 2.6 Kernels
Distribution: OpenSUSE 10.0; SUSE 9.3 Special Edition; Fedora Core 4; CentOS 4.2


I bought this modem under the fact that the box claimed it came with support for Linux, or at least a driver. I bought it and installed it to my last PCI port, and booted to SUSE 9.3. Tried to load the driver that came on the CD, but soon realized that it was written about three years ago and only supported 2.4 kernels. I download the newer driver on SmartLink's web site and attempt to load it in, but as illustrated above there are many issues that come along with the driver, so many that I decided not to bother with it in Linux at all.
Just to give it a fair shot, however, I tried it in my Windows XP Professional installation. It recognized it and installed the stock driver automatically, but apparantly their driver was of a very low quality. I kept getting this problem where I'd keep getting disconnected about every 10 minutes, and it just got worse, to the point that I was getting disconnected every 30 seconds (I wish I were kidding). Having paid for this and feeling ripped-off, I went back and returned it.
Guys, even if you are in Windows, buy a real controller-based modem. I've had mine for years and it hasn't skipped a beat.
 
Old 03-13-2006, 08:03 PM   #9
burntfuse
 
Registered: Sep 2005
Distribution: Slackware 10.1, FC5
Posts: 164

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Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 2

Kernel (uname -r): 2.4.29
Distribution: Slackware 10.1


I bought this as a CompUSA-brand modem, thinking that it probably wasn't a winmodem since it wasn't labeled as one. In short: don't make my mistake, and stay far away from this one. There is an "official" driver, but it's very annoying. Unlike normal drivers, which are built as loadable modules, this "driver" comes in the form of a program that has to be running continuously in the background. That wouldn't be so bad by itself if I didn't keep on getting disconnected every 5-10 minutes like the last reviewer. I've already taken it out of my computer, and plan to return it as soon as possible. If you have to get a winmodem, get a PCTel, but it's much better to just get a real "hard modem".
 




  



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