Hello! I'm verrrrry new to linux, as I just installed my first distribution today (Mandrake) and now I'm trying to work out the modem issues. I ran scanmodem and this is part of what I got:

Modem candidates are at PCI_buses: 00:1f.6

Providing detail for device at PCI_bus 00:1f.6
with vendor-ID:device-ID
----:----
Class 0703: 8086:24d6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801EB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
SubSystem 104d:8129 Sony Corporation: Unknown device 8129
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 17
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]

Internal_test: ./scanModem test 8086:24d6 104d:8129 mandrake 2.6.3-7mdk 3.3.2

The soft modem Subsystem operates under a controller
8086:24d6 82801EB ICH5 with Subsystem chipset POSSIBLY from:
Intel
Smartlink


It then listed some things about Smartlink drivers that I could try, which I downloaded, but I can't quite get through the make process of it. If I didn't edit the makefile to correct the kernel path, I'd get an error about a directory not existing. If I tried to change the path somehow (which I'm not even sure was correct, because I don't exactly know my way around), then I'd get an error about not targetting 'modules'. So I'm a litttttttle confused.

Also, before I did this, I tried a lucent/agere driver, because on the harddrive manager, my modem is listed as an Agere AC'97, so I only assumed it was right, but it didn't work. And to install that driver, I had to install kernel 2.4, so would that be an issue? Does it even have anything to do with me not being able to install the Smartlink driver?

And if I do have two kernels installed, is there a way to uninstall one? What exactly happens when you have two anyway?

These are really silly newbie questions but if anyone would be willing to answer them, I'd be incredibly grateful... Thanks tons in advance.

Okay, well this is the exact wording of the error I get when I try to 'make'...

make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/modem'
make -C drivers KERNEL_DIR=/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/build
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
cc -I/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/build/include -o kernel-ver kernel-ver.c
make all KERNEL_VER=2.6.0
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make modules -C /lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/build SUBDIRS=/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers
make: *** /lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: Entering an unknown directorymake: Leaving an unknown directorymake[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make: *** [drivers] Error 2

If I edit the KERNEL_DIR in the makefile, it comes out like this:

make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/modem'
make -C drivers KERNEL_DIR=/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/kernel
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
cc -I/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/kernel/include -o kernel-ver kernel-ver.c
make all KERNEL_VER=2.6.0
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make modules -C /lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/kernel SUBDIRS=/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers
make[3]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/kernel'
make[3]: *** No rule to make target `modules'. Stop.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/2.4.25-2mdk/kernel'
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make: *** [drivers] Error 2


I don't know if this'll be anymore helpful. Anyhoo.. thanks again in advance to anyone..

As I was waiting for a response, I poked around some more and realized that I needed the kernel source code installed, which it wasn't, so I got that done just now. Then I tried the Smartlink driver again and I got much farther until the point where I was supposed to load the modules. I got:

[root@localhost slmodem-2.9.9]# modprobe slamr
FATAL: Module slamr not found.

So I tried going ahead anyway and then:

[root@localhost dev]# /usr/sbin/slmodemd /dev/slamr0
error: mdm setup: cannot open dev `/dev/slamr0': No such device
error: cannot setup device `/dev/slamr0'

So I figure maybe it's something to do with the make going wrong? But I'm not too good at making anything out of it:

[root@localhost slmodem-2.9.9]# make install
make -C modem all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/modem'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/modem'
make -C drivers KERNEL_DIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.3
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
cc -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.3/include -o kernel-ver kernel-ver.c
make all KERNEL_VER=2.6.3
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make modules -C /usr/src/linux-2.6.3 SUBDIRS=/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers
make[3]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.3'
*** Warning: Overriding SUBDIRS on the command line can cause
*** inconsistencies
make[4]: `arch/i386/kernel/asm-offsets.s' is up to date.
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.3'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make install -C drivers KERNEL_DIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.3
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
cc -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.3/include -o kernel-ver kernel-ver.c
mkdir -p /dev
mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr0 c 212 0 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr1 c 212 1 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr2 c 212 2 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr3 c 212 3 ; echo -n
mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb0 c 213 0 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb1 c 213 1 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb2 c 213 2 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb3 c 213 3 ; echo -n
make install KERNEL_VER=2.6.3
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
install -D -m 644 slamr.ko /lib/modules/2.6.3/extra/slamr.ko
install -D -m 644 slusb.ko /lib/modules/2.6.3/extra/slusb.ko
/sbin/depmod -a
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/willoughby/slmodem-2.9.9/drivers'
install -D -m 755 modem/slmodemd /usr/sbin/slmodemd
rm -f -rf /var/lib/slmodem
install -d -D -m 755 /var/lib/slmodem


So there it is.. If anyone could help me figure out what's missing, I'd be, of course, incredibly grateful.

I've been working with this driver over the last couple of days so maybe we can figure it out together. It's a soft driver for a motherboard chip as far as I can tell. All that means is that it uses a process or a daemon in Unix speak to make the modem work.

It might be good to put the driver in the /usr/src directory so the software can find the modules section of the source code. I had problems when I initially tried my home directory.

Are you trying to use it with Alsa modules? If your sound card is working, you probably are not, but that might be an issue if you've got an Agere ATI or Intel chip. In my system, the Smart Link modem uses ALSA drivers as a kind of base. LD

Brigsby, to answer a couple of your kernel questions:

"And to install that driver, I had to install kernel 2.4, so would that be an issue? Does it even have anything to do with me not being able to install the Smartlink driver?"

--- That would not be an issue to install 2.4. You can have several installed kernels at once on your machine, you just have to choose which to boot when you boot up using lilo or grub. The Smartlink driver supposedly works with kernel 2.6 and 2.4, although I have had issues similar to yours, and have yet to figure them out. I'm running Mandy 10 on a customized kernel 2.6.3, modified from the stock Mandrake 2.6.3-4mdk.

"And if I do have two kernels installed, is there a way to uninstall one? What exactly happens when you have two anyway?"

--- There is no need to uninstall your old kernel. The system will only boot one at a time. In fact, it is always good to keep on known working kernel hanging around as a fallback, in case something goes horribly wrong with the new one. In your "/boot" directory, you will find several files, including one called either bzImage or more commonly vmlinuz (in Mandrake at least). That's the kernel itself. When you power on your computer, lilo should run giving you a choice of things to boot. Right now you can only boot on kernel because you only have one. But when you install another one, and modify your lilo config file (/etc/lilo.conf) you will have two choices of kernels to boot. The linux kernel comes with pretty good and extensive documentation, although you may check out a some posts here or the Linux-Kernel-Howto.

Hope that helps a bit


By the way, I'm with you guys in that I've been trying to install the latest version of Smartlink's driver (2.9.10), on my laptop

All4Italy , did you mean that those with Intel Chips (like mine) work better using the alsa driver than the regular slamr driver? That entails downloading kernel ver. 2.6.5, no? I have 2.6.3 and a dialup connection , and am not looking forward to downloading the source for 2.6.5 if I don't have to. Although I could just patch it...