Depends on your CPU mate ... if it's fast
you shouldn't really notice too much ...
but other than that: I've always preferred
external modems ;)

Blinkenlights and all :}

Cheers,
Tink

Thanks to all for your help.

I've found instructions at linmodems.org which I had neglected earlier...They are very helpful and I'll say more in a bit - But first...

Is it really possible to delete /dev/modem and then mkdir as root mkdir /dev/modem?

What is special about that "directory"? Is it a directory? If it is I should be able to delete and recreate it?

i have no idea if you can recreate it or not......i don't think it's a directory though. in my dev directory /dev/modem has a device icon. i imagine that there has to be some way to recreate your /dev/modem but i don't know how to do it

Thanks for your reply...You're right. I had been working with the terminal where its hard to tell those things. But I launched Nautilus and changed into the /dev directory and visually I can see that this isn't going to work. Thanks for the tip --- I think I'm going to spend some time backing up my files and doing a reinstall and I'll be back with this later..

/dev/modem is usually just a symlink to
/dev/ttySX
where X is the number fo the serial port
it relates to.

All you need to do is find out which of
the ttyS's is your modem, and then link it

ln -s /dev/ttySX /dev/modem


Cheers,
Tink

i did a google search on /dev/modem and it seems that since it is a link that you should be able to just re do the sym link and /dev/modem will return. also a thought: the install of the ltwinmodem drivers might create this link for you....i'm not sure though. i didn't think of checking it when i installed my winmodem.

tink beat me to it.......you should be ok following the commands in his post though!!!

So /dev/modem can be just a file folder with a sym link inside? That's all it is...

There needn't be a device icon associated with it?

I tried creating a sym link inside the modem directory before and I still couldn't get my modem to respond or initialize...

I've backed up my files (there aren't that many...) and I'm going to reinstall all the same. Just to be sure. I thank you for your continued efforts...I'll be back here in a bit..

GOT IT !!!!!

Here's a fast review ...

I did a clean install - And incidentally, I checked for modem in dev

ls -l /dev/modem

and the result was "no such file or directory..." After install. Which I thought was curious because I thought the OS would install something there but apparently not.

But I reinstalled the rpm..First though ere are some links that I obtained as a result of linmodems.org...

From LinModems clicked on Lucent modem resources and directed here...
http://www.heby.de/ltmodem

LTModem drivers can be obtained here...
http://www.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de/...dem/index.html

Link to archive packages - older Mandrake
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pack...hive/mandrake/
my particular rpm - for my kernel version obtained here..
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pack...drake/6.00b07/
"ltmodem-kv 2.4.8 26mdk-6.00b7-1.i586.rpm" -

So I executed like this...
rpm -ihvvv ltmodem...rpm

And it installed without error. I thought I was done...but I needed to configure some things..

Configuration docs are available with "8.1_devfs_info.tar.gz" here..
http://www.sfu.ca/~cth/ltmodem/dists/mandrake/
This is very helpful. And I think based upon the steps I followed that my modem is installed and loaded..My instruction file is called "DeviceFileSystem.txt"

Following instructions -

I checked to see if there is an acting Device File System...(but I don't know what this means..) and I saw that there is..

then I checked /etc/modules.conf

and saw alias' for lt_serial, one of which was
alias /dev/modem lt_serial

I've edited the file /etc/devfsd.conf according to these instructions, adding lines for the LTmodem

Listing the loaded modules with lsmod I see that my drivers have been installed AND loaded. This didn't happen before I reintalled my OS. I could only install the drivers but they did not load with the install. That probably was an indication that something was wrong (but how could I know?)

Now I query the symbolic /dev/modem ( expecting not to see anything ) but now I see..

lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7 Dec 4 14:02 /dev/modem -> tts/LT0

And according to my instructions that is what I should see. But I didn't see that either before I did a reinstall. So I must have messed something up earlier by deleting this directory, but I don't know what.

Also, the icon for /dev/modem that I see in Konqueror appears like the others, as a device, not as a file folder.

Now I feel like I'm installed and loaded and I do

kppp

And I query my modem ( at /dev/modem ) and it says

"Modem Ready" !!! And I can see the rest of the Modem query results. .

Now I think I can connect to the Internet.

Post Install docs can also be found here..But I haven't looked at these yet. I don't know what they are - And I don't think I need them.
http://phep2.technion.ac.il/goldberg/post-install.html

I've got a real Internet connection now...

Thanks so much Tinkster and GrapeApe for your help!!!

Congratulations :}


Cheers,
Tink

glad that you're good to go now!

i also went through this lot with my internal winmodem , i eventually found drivers for it but it still didnt run to its full potential so i went out and bought a real modem, an external one attached via a serial port and have had no problems with any distros since, best money i ever spent.