Dell Inspiron 5150 Modem
 

Good day.

A few weeks ago, I got myself a Dell Inspiron 5150, P4 3.06 GB HT, 1GB RAM. I installed WinXP and FC2 and it was a breeze. FC2 detected everything, synaptics, video card (NVidia GeForce FX Go 5200), network, firewire, USB mouse, etc. Even hyperthreading (it detects 2 CPUs) and the battery meter works.

Unfortunately, my modem doesn't work. It works flawlessly on XP but not on linux. When I check my hardware browser, the modem is detected. Even when I do an /sbin/lspci, it's there. Here are the some info:

Hardware browser:
82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller
Manufacturer: Intel Corp.
Driver: snd-intel8x0m

/sbin/lspci
Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)

When I do a scanModem, there are a lot of info there but one noticeable thing is:
An AC'97 modem codec was not detected
A /dev/modem symbolic link is not set.

I already tried installing SmartLink slmodem-2.9.6 and 2.9.7 but to no avail. My modem is already detected but I just simply can't connect. Using wvdial and /dev/ttyS0 as the modem device won't work. It tries to connect but just hangs (no response.... just trying to connect infinitely).

I really would like to get online on my Linux OS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Arnel Estanislao

Take a look http://www.linuxant.com

They do modem drivers for using Winmodems with Linux. I think you can try their drivers for a few days before you have to pay the $20 or so, so you can see if it works for you first.

Thanks jrittvo. I visited the site and used their List Modem Tool. Unluckily, mine wasn't detected therefore I don't have a Conexant modem.

Is there any other driver that I can download? As per my earlier post, my modem was detected (through the Hardware Browser), I just can't make it to work. I used to have a desktop PC and a US Robotics as a modem and I never got a problem. Or maybe I'm missing something?

TIA.

I have a 5150 also, but I never fussed with the modem for Windows or Linux. These modems are "softmodems". They use the sound card or audio chip, I think, to make the actual sounds, instead of having a full modem chip set. The Intel modem controller you are getting listed is actually your sound chip. I have the same one. But when I run the Windows version of the List Modem tool, it says I have a HSR something-or-other modem with niumbers that are close to some of the ones they support. I'm going to boot into Linux and see what some of the things say.... Be back later.

Thanks for the quick reply. I think you're right that the modem uses the audio card to make the sound. I really would appreciate it if you could help me setup my modem.

Thanks so much.

This is what I get running scanModem in Linux:

Providing detail for device at PCI_bus 00:1f.6
with vendor-ID:device-ID
----:----
Class 0703: 8086:24c6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
SubSystem 14f1:5422 Conexant: Unknown device 5422
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 7
I/O ports at b400
I/O ports at b080 [size=128]
The soft modem Subsystem operates under a controller
8086:24c6 82801DB ICH4 with Subsystem chipset POSSIBLY from:
Broadcom
AgereSystems
Conexant
Intel
Smartlink

-------------------------------------
It's listing the same Intel chip as you get, but also mentioning possible Conexant subsystem.

Windows' Device Manager says it is a Conexant D480 MDC V.9x Modem.

Can you paste in here the result you get when you run scanModem?

Here's what I got from scanmodem:

Providing detail for device at PCI_bus 00:1f.6
with vendor-ID:device-ID
----:----
Class 0703: 8086:24c6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
SubSystem 14e4:4d64 Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4d64
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 177
I/O ports at b400
I/O ports at b080 [size=128]

Internal_test: ./scanModem test 8086:24c6 14e4:4d64 redhat 2.6.5-1.358smp 3.3.3

The soft modem Subsystem operates under a controller
8086:24c6 82801DB ICH4 with Subsystem chipset POSSIBLY from:
Broadcom
AgereSystems
Conexant
Intel
Smartlink

Then yours is a Broadcom. I know from the drivers on Dell's site that they use both Broadcom and Conexant. And I don't really know that this Conexant in mine is one that Linuxant supports -- I'd try it here but I'm running kernel 2.6.6-1.435 and I think it will be a day or 2 before Linuxant has a version for this newest kernel. I will try it out though when I can and post back here. If it does work, you could maybe contact Dell and find out what would be involved in getting the Conexant version of the mini-PCI moidem card. Or, you could find out what PCMCIA modems are directly supportd by Fedora and get one of those. Or, see what Windows Device Manager says you have (Broadcom model #) and Google it to see if someone has managed to get it working under Linux.

Thanks jrittvo. Your help is very much appreciated. I'll do some research on Broadcom and will post any findings here. But should you come across any information on this issue, kindly let me know.

You've been a great help!!!

Thanks dude.

I checked the modem that was detected on my XP, it's BCM V.92 56K modem. If anyone could help me find the correct driver for my lLinux OS, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

I think your out of luck. I had the same problem on my dell inspiron 8200. Softmodems and Linux just don't mix well yet. Find a computer store and buy an external one if you absolutly need a modem on the laptop. The external modems are all hardware controlled, and thus will work with Linux fine. However, I'm not sure how well an USB external modem works. I'd go with a serial connection external modem.

Thanks MacrossV for the info. I'm still hoping that someone in this forum would be able to help me out without resorting to getting an external modem. But should I really run out of luck.... then I'll get myself one.

Thanks.

I gave up myself. It drove me nuts seeing how everything works to perfection with Linux except for that lousy modem. Hope you have better luck than i did.

That's true. I can't believe everything works on Linux except the modem. I do hope someone out there was able to figure this out.

By the way, did you get yourself an external modem? Is it working properly?

Thanks.

Yes, i did get an external modem. It works very nicely. It's a Creative(i think that's the brand) Modem Blaster External v.92. Suse 9.1 Pro found it and configuration ran smootly. It cost me $70 though.

I guess I have to get myself an external modem. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that someone would be able to help me configure my internal modem.

Here are a few links for you to investigate for the Broadcom modem. The first one is about softmodems in general:
http://start.at/modem

This next one is about Broadcom specifically:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/g/gro...m/bcm421x.html

It links to this page at Dell with a source code package:
http://support.ap.dell.com/ap/en/fil...?fileid=R47114

I hope some of this is helpful or at least informative!

Thanks jrittvo. Will check the links later tonight and will post any findings.

:)

Tried out the sites and luck is still not on my side. I would appreciate if there are any other references that you could give.

TIA.

Hope someone out there could help me configure my BCM modem.

TIA.

I think making my modem work is already hopeless. Can anyone be kind enough to suggest what type of external modem should I buy to replace it (and why, if it's no hassle). I only have 2 USB ports and I always use one of them for my USB mouse. I also have firewire port but I don't know what that is for.

Thanks.

i don't think you are out of luck yet.
at
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/dollinger/...x/acer800.html
i found him says that a driver at
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/dollinger/...-2.7.10.tar.gz
would work with your internal modem.
try it out see if it works.
you have to use "Save As" to download the driver.
otherwise, you will be redirected to other places.
you can found more recent driver at
ftp://ftp.smlink.com/linux/unsupported/

i did some more research and it looks like the driver surely does work with your modem.
check out there site for further detail
http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~...debian_on_t41/
http://www.geekster.org/ibmt41/ibmt41.php

Thanks tricky_linux. I'll try this over the weekend.... hope this works. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

:)

I tried using the SmartLink 2.9.7 driver but when I read their documentation, it still doesn't support SMP kernels (no wonder it won't compile). I guess I'll just have to wait for them to support this.

Thanks for everyone's input. If there are any more suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.

:)

oh, i think that's why all the things wasn't working out foryou.
you did state you have two cpu in the first place did you?

BCM Modem works on Linux 2.6.5
 

I have a Dell 5150 with the Broadcom softmodem, and it works with Linux 2.6.5 (SuSE 9.1) and slmodem-2.9.7.

Just as a reference, my modem appears as below when I run /sbin/lspci:
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)

ScanModem reports the following:
Providing detail for device at PCI_bus 0000:00:1f.6
with vendor-ID:device-ID
----:----
Class 0703: 8086:24c6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
SubSystem 14e4:4d64 Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4d64
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 7
I/O ports at b400
I/O ports at b080 [size=128]
The soft modem Subsystem operates under a controller
8086:24c6 82801DB ICH4 with Subsystem chipset POSSIBLY from:
Broadcom
AgereSystems
Conexant
Intel
Smartlink

Also, the exact model name is a Broadcom BCM9415M, as labelled on the underside of the laptop.

The modem was detected when I installed SuSE 9.1 but it did not work after the rpms were installed and configured. It started OK but the log files reported "No carrier".

Eventually, I tracked down the problem to not having slmodem compiled for alsa mode. (The slmodem README was a big help, see the "ALSA mode (2.6 kernel only)" section). I downloaded slmodem-2.9.7.tar.gz from www.smlink.com, unzipped and untarred it. Then:
cd slmodem-2.9.7/modem
make SUPPORT_ALSA=1 install

This overwrote the SuSE binary, but that was OK.

Of course, you need your kernel compiled for alsa support (again, see the slmodem README). Then you must load the correct module:
modprobe snd-intel8x0m

And start the daemon, IN ALSA MODE:
/usr/sbin/slmodemd --country=wherever-you-live --alsa hw:1

The "hw:1" is important, as it tells the daemon which ICH channel to use, normally channel 0 is already used by sound, so channel 1 is available for the modem. But you may need to experiment...

Lastly, you can test your modem with wvdial, here is my wvdial.conf:
[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/modem
Baud = 57600
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2
Init3 =
Area Code =
Phone = 0
Username =
Password =
Ask Password = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Force Address =
Idle Seconds = 300
DialMessage1 =
DialMessage2 =
ISDN = 0
Auto DNS = 1

So far, I have not used any V92 features, just used the modem for Internet dialup using pppd and SuSE's KInternet. I have got speeds up to 48K, so I'm happy with that.

For SuSE slmodem automatic startup, I modified the slmodemd configuration file in /etc/sysconfig:
SLMODEMD_COUNTRY="IRELAND"
SLMODEMD_DEVICE="--alsa hw:1"

I also modified /etc/sysconfig/slmodem:
# slmodem support
#Cjk added next line, comment next two.
alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0m
#alias char-major-212 slamr
#alias char-major-213 slusb

Hope this helps, I've been going from memory, so there may be a few mistakes.

Thanks chriskearns. Are you using an SMP kernel? According to the README file of slmodem-2.9.7, it still doesn't support SMP kernels. My current kernel is 2.6.6-1.435.2.1smp. Any help you could give is highly appreciated.

chriskearns, this is the error I got when I did make SUPPORT_ALSA=1 install:
make: *** No rule to make target `install'. Stop.

So instead, I did make SUPPORT_ALSA=1 and I got this:
Hope you could enlighten me what I did wrong.

TIA.

Need ALSA development files
 

Hello saklay,

You need the alsa development files installed under /usr/include. On SuSE 9.1, they are included in the alsa-devel-1.0.3-37.rpm package, and rpm -ivh puts them in the correct place. I presume FC will have a similar package.

My Dell 5150 3.06GHz P4 is not HT enabled, so I have only one CPU. However, I can boot both standard and SMP SuSE 9.1 kernels, and the modem works in both environments.

Regards.

I've a question regarding XP and FC2's coexistence in 5150. Did you encounter the boot-sector over-write problem ?

In my case, I've XP and SuSE and I'd like to replace SuSE with FC2, but am afraid of loosing XP. I read about the manual correction mode, but it sounded tedious.

Thanks.

I have been doing upgrade installs from previous versions, so my FC2 was an upgrade from FC1, and it just left the partitions it found alone. (It's the partition table that can get mis-read or mis-written, not the boot sector, I think, and it was related to the kernel or something else in the final version of FC2, so I was not at risk going up from FC1.) If you can tell Fedora to take over your existing SuSE partition(s) I can't imagine you would have any problem either though, unless you use ReiserFS, which I don't think FC supports on installation. You will be able to step through the partition portion of the installation before you really have to commit to it, so you can do a dry run and tell it to use so-and-so existing ext2/3 partition for this and so and so existing ext2/3 partition for that, and see if it complains. And if you let it install it's grub bootloader to your MBR, it will do fine for the dual boot stuff too.

Interesting points. I'm not clear on the grub stuff.

Now that I've a dual-boot with XP and SuSE, SuSE has its grub installed and so when I install FC2( after all dry runs ), at the end I've to install the grub( of FC2 ) anyway isn't - to be clean. I do want to get rid of SuSE stuff anyway, so I believe installing grub from FC2 is what I prefer.

So I guess I do have to expect the partition screw up anyway. But at what stage is the alteration of partition occur ?

Thanks.

Fedora's grub will just replace SuSE's grub, I think. That still won't have any effect on your partitions. What are your partitions now for SuSE? Size and type?

Total space 40GB
XP : 25GB
SuSE: 12GB+( including some tiny space for tmp )
2GB+ - Stupid policy of Dell to use it for recovery

Is the SuSE all or mostly in one partition? What type is it?

Yup - Its all in 1 partition.
I remember it be the default. I believe its ext2 or ext3, certainly not ReiserFS.

Addendum:-
I actually used Partition Magic to split the XP partition, to create partitions for Linux and then I pointed SuSE to use the newly created Linux partitions.

Ok. Then I think you will be fine if you just tell Fedora to "take over" the SuSE partition. It will do what it needs to do (make 3 partitions out of it) and I don't think you will get bit by the bug. I started the same way, with Partition Magic, but I did it to leave 10 GB unallocated, and then told Fedora to use the unallocated space.

Here is a tip though, in case you get into trouble somewhere. One of the CDs that came with your Dell is a WindowsXP CD. At any time, you can hit F12 when the machine boots and tell it to boot from the CD. It can boot from the WindowsXP Dell CD. You can then tell it that you want to go into the Recovery Console and it will get you to a command prompt. If you type:

fixmbr

it will tell you you have a broken mbr and that it might not be able to fix it (because it considers anything Linux to be broken) but that you can let it try. It will replace whatever grub you have installed at that point with the regular WindowsXP boot stuff, and from then on your machine will just boot straight into Windows. You could then go back to Partition Magic, and use it to delete the SuSE partition and turn it to unallocated space, and then you would be right were I was when I installed Fedora, and hopefully with no bugs or problems or glitches.

I would roll the dice and just try letting Fedora take over the SuSE partition and save the fixmbr routine in case it didn't go right. And I would be sure I had a good backup of my Windows data files.

I hope this makes some sense!

jrittvo,

Thanks for the all information. Really appreciate it. But I'm sorry - I gave one wrong info. Its is of type reiserFS.

Its been a while since I installed SuSE and I believe in Partition Magic I had formatted it to be ext2/3, but I think when SuSE installs, I was asked to use this partition-type and I believe I chose yes.

Does this change your suggestion.

As a dry run, I popped in the FC2 CD and that's when I noted its of type reiserFS, but anyway, I believe I can get into manual partitioning mode and get it used for FC2. Is my assumption correct ?

You can tell Fedora to "take over" that partition, yes. And then it will give you a choice where it does the rest for you, or you can do it manually. I'm banking on the notion that as long as you don't tell it to do anything with the Windows partitions, that it would have no reason to alter the parameters for it in the partition table, and therefore it would avoid the possible bug. I wish I had read more into what it was about, but isn't it something to do with LBA and BIOSs that were from the time when that was just starting out? If so, that is way before the time of our machines, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Are we referring the same issue with 2.6 kernel...

Some time back I read about it here
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedor.../msg02114.html

Yes, that is the same bug I was referring to. I'm going to check in the BIOS and see if it has the LBA option they mention or if it is actually locked into LBA. I'm not an expert on this, but I still have the impressionm that this is a bug that affected machines with older BIOSs and perhaps installs of Windows before WindowsXP, where almost all the DOS stuff was eliminated.

If you are really afraid, and don't have a way to make a decent backup of your Windows stuff, you could maybe do an install of FC 1 first, like I did, which is still the 2.4 kernel (no bug then) and then do an upgrade install of FC 2 shortly after on top of it. That was the way I did it and no bug here. I don't think FC 2 (2.6 kernel) had to bother with partitions at all in that sequence.

I'll post back in a moment if I find any clues in the BIOS here.....

When I tried to find more details about this bug( which they actually don't refer as a bug, but more of an expected alteration ), I only read about XP, not XP by itself as a upgraded product.

Even in a such a case, it shouldn't matter isn't, because if XP was an upgrade to any previous version of Windows, its would alter the boot-sector accordinly, anyway. So it could happen to a new XP installation, that's what my understanding was.

In my case, I don't think BIOS is an issue as this is just 1+ year old laptop.

Appreciate your time and information.

I just checked in the BIOS and there is no option to turn LBA on/off, like there used to be a few years ago, so it has LBA locked on or it couldn't use hard drives of our sizes. I'm going to see if there is any useful info in Partition Magic partition info. The link you gave above seems to have very thorough instructions for fixing back up if you do get "bugged".

No useful info from Partition Magic.

Is my understanding correct that this can't be prevented at all, as the alteration is done by the 2.6 kernel and in a shared drive space environment, its bound to happen anyway.

What I'm not clear is whether it happens "all the time" or only for some specific cases and if so, what're they. I couldn't find that out.

It happens only some of the time. Apparently, there are 2 possible ways to describe partitions: C/H/S which is cylinder/head/sector and LBA which I think stands for Logical Block Addressing. One of them is limited in the size of disk it could describe (probably like a 16-bit vs. 32-bit thing) so they went to the other system. The 2.6 kernel in some situations mis-interprets the data from one set and and then rewrites the partition table with different parameters. That confuses Windows. The instructions in the link you gave above tell how to get the parameters back to the ones Windows is happy with. Seems like Linux is happy either way.

I'm also not clear on when it happens and when it does not, but I think it happens with older machines and not so much with newer machines, or with older versions of Windows and not so much with newer versions of Windows. I saw somewhere instructions to switch BIOS settings from LBA off to on or vice versa (don't remember very well, sorry) as a way to avoid the issue, but I think our machines are locked into LBA on. And I think that is the ok way, but I'm not sure.

Well,

I started with much enthusiasm and am stuck :) I'm confused on the partitioning options given by FC2.

Have posted as a seperate thread in here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=215166

Do you've any suggestions.

Thanks.