I bought this extenal serial modem in the assumption that it would work with my Ubuntu 5.10 laptop - I was wrong!

Apart from the modem having to be switched on before the laptop boots up (trivial), the modem lights on the front are different every time it is switched on, and only one combination will work. I then have to turn the modem on and off up to 30 times before I get the combination that works.

I'd be grateful for advice on this. I have tried minicom, but the initialise modem is ignored by the SEMT-5600.

Below is a copy of the dmesg output, immediately after bootup - sorry it is very long, but I did not want to leave out anything that might be relevant.

Thanks in anticipation,
Alan

dmesg output:

x808f could not be reserved
[4294672.856000] Simple Boot Flag at 0x35 set to 0x1
[4294672.858000] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
[4294672.858000] audit: initialized
[4294672.859000] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
[4294672.859000] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[4294672.859000] devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
[4294672.859000] devfs: boot_options: 0x0
[4294672.860000] Initializing Cryptographic API
[4294672.860000] PCI: Disabling Via external APIC routing
[4294672.860000] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
[4294673.214000] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[4294673.376000] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
[4294673.379000] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[4294673.379000] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[4294673.379000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 54 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[4294673.380000] ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[4294673.400000] ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[4294673.400000] io scheduler noop registered
[4294673.400000] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[4294673.400000] io scheduler deadline registered
[4294673.400000] io scheduler cfq registered
[4294673.403000] RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
[4294673.405000] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0
[4294673.405000] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 1
[4294673.405000] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 6
[4294673.405000] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 8
[4294673.405000] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
[4294673.405000] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[4294673.415000] IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
[4294673.416000] TCP established hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[4294673.416000] TCP bind hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[4294673.416000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 2048)
[4294673.417000] NET: Registered protocol family 8
[4294673.417000] NET: Registered protocol family 20
[4294673.417000] ACPI wakeup devices:
[4294673.417000] LID PCI0 LMDM
[4294673.417000] ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
[4294673.421000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 224k freed
[4294673.449000] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
[4294673.644000] Capability LSM initialized
[4294673.740000] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[4294673.832000] Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
[4294673.832000] ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
[4294673.832000] ACPI: bus type ide registered
[4294673.879000] VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:07.1
[4294673.879000] VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
[4294673.879000] VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[4294673.879000] VP_IDE: VIA vt82c686a (rev 19) IDE UDMA66 controller on pci0000:00:07.1
[4294673.879000] ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1000-0x1007, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbio
[4294673.879000] ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1008-0x100f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddio
[4294673.879000] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[4294674.263000] hda: HITACHI_DK23AA-60, ATA DISK drive
[4294674.875000] ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
[4294674.876000] Probing IDE interface ide1...
[4294675.668000] hdc: CD-224E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[4294676.280000] ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
[4294676.281000] Probing IDE interface ide2...
[4294676.794000] Probing IDE interface ide3...
[4294677.307000] Probing IDE interface ide4...
[4294677.820000] Probing IDE interface ide5...
[4294678.360000] hda: max request size: 128KiB
[4294678.488000] hda: 11733120 sectors (6007 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=12416/15/63, UDMA(33)
[4294678.488000] hda: cache flushes not supported
[4294678.489000] /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 >
[4294678.556000] hdc: ATAPI 24X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
[4294678.556000] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[4294680.796000] Attempting manual resume
[4294680.797000] swsusp: Suspend partition has wrong signature?
[4294681.135000] usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
[4294681.136000] usbcore: registered new driver hub
[4294681.142000] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
[4294681.142000] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:07.2 (0010 -> 0011)
[4294681.144000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 5
[4294681.144000] PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered
[4294681.144000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.2[D] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
[4294681.144000] PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:07.2, from 255 to 5
[4294681.144000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
[4294681.207000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[4294681.207000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: irq 5, io base 0x00001020
[4294681.207000] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[4294681.208000] hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[4294685.757000] ACPI: Fan [FAN] (on)
[4294685.780000] ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2])
[4294685.780000] ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports 16 throttling states)
[4294685.788000] ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (13 C)
[4294686.227000] Attempting manual resume
[4294686.250000] swsusp: Suspend partition has wrong signature?
[4294686.336000] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[4294686.336000] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[4294689.655000] md: md driver 0.90.1 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
[4294701.374000] Adding 168640k swap on /dev/hda5. Priority:-1 extents:1
[4294701.822000] EXT3 FS on hda1, internal journal
[4294733.403000] parport_pc: VIA 686A/8231 detected
[4294733.403000] parport_pc: probing current configuration
[4294733.403000] parport_pc: Current parallel port base: 0x378
[4294733.403000] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,EPP]
[4294733.485000] parport_pc: VIA parallel port: io=0x378, irq=7
[4294733.520000] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
[4294733.808000] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[4294734.155000] alps.c: Enabling hardware tapping
[4294734.220000] input: PS/2 Mouse on isa0060/serio1
[4294734.242000] input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint on isa0060/serio1
[4294736.957000] ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
[4294743.574000] device-mapper: 4.4.0-ioctl (2005-01-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[4294745.176000] hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
[4294745.176000] hdc: packet command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }
[4294745.176000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[4294745.176000] cdrom: open failed.
[4294751.710000] Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
[4294751.782000] agpgart: Detected VIA Apollo MVP4 chipset
[4294751.815000] agpgart: AGP aperture is 16M @ 0xfd000000
[4294753.013000] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
[4294753.270000] shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
[4294753.270000] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
[4294758.549000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 5
[4294758.549000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.5[C] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
[4294758.549000] PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:07.5, from 255 to 5
[4294758.549000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:07.5 to 64
[4294761.931000] Linux Kernel Card Services
[4294761.931000] options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
[4294762.042000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10
[4294762.042000] PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
[4294762.042000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
[4294762.042000] Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:0a.0 [1509:4260]
[4294762.042000] Yenta O2: res at 0x94/0xD4: ee/00
[4294762.042000] Yenta O2: old bridge, not enabling read prefetch / write burst
[4294762.162000] Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0808, PCI irq 10
[4294762.162000] Socket status: 30000007
[4294762.231000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.1[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
[4294762.232000] Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:0a.1 [1509:4260]
[4294762.352000] Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0808, PCI irq 10
[4294762.352000] Socket status: 30000007
[4294764.916000] Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
[4294765.571000] input: PC Speaker
[4294767.253000] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
[4294767.267000] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
[4294778.849000] ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (on-line)
[4294779.185000] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)
[4294779.343000] ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
[4294779.343000] ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]
[4294779.343000] ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SBTN]
[4294779.343000] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]
[4294780.192000] ibm_acpi: ec object not found
[4294781.110000] ACPI: Video Device [VGA] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no)
[4294797.750000] apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
[4294797.750000] apm: overridden by ACPI.
[4294806.446000] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x4ff: clean.
[4294806.450000] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x4ff: clean.
[4294806.456000] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[4294806.458000] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[4294806.460000] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[4294806.461000] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[4294888.951000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4294888.951000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4294889.118000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4294889.118000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4294955.753000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4294955.753000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4294955.879000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4294955.879000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295020.579000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295020.579000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295020.716000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295020.716000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295023.542000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295023.542000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295023.683000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295023.683000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295025.497000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295025.497000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295025.628000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295025.628000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295082.377000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295082.377000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295082.478000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295082.478000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295124.920000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295124.920000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295125.016000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295125.016000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295153.088000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295153.088000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295153.189000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295153.189000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295198.958000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295198.958000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295199.059000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295199.059000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295215.407000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295215.407000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295215.499000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295215.499000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295226.620000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295226.620000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295226.737000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295226.737000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295244.028000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295244.028000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295244.134000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295244.134000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295265.410000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295265.410000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295265.526000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295265.526000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295356.451000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295356.451000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295356.633000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295356.633000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295400.922000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295400.922000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295401.018000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295401.018000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295430.844000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295430.844000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295430.951000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295430.951000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295441.632000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295441.632000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295441.809000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295441.809000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295442.482000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295442.482000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295442.614000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295442.614000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295442.913000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295442.913000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.
[4295443.019000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xaa on isa0060/serio0).
[4295443.019000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e02a <keycode>' to make it known.