Require major help with Mandrake Linux 8.1
 

I'm definitely a n00bie to Linux and thus I'm having major troubles configuring a 56k modem that's apperently supported. I'm using Mandrake Linux 8.1 and I'm required to post from Windows, because I cannot use the modem on my other PC with Linux installed on it. The modem on the PC with Linux is a PCTel HSP56 Micromodem 7890. Obviously, I'm required to install a separate modem driver package, which
I downloaded already from my Windows PC. I currently am getting the following symptoms with KPPP dialer:

I get the error message stating that the modem didn't respond.

-or-

I get the error message stating that the modem is busy, even when the modem isn't busy!

BTW, I checked the modem ids with lspci -v

is your kernel probly configured to use dialup modems?

What am I supposed to do exactly?


I did download the Mandrake Linux 8.1 2.4x kernel source RPM archive file, which is 22MB from my Windows PC.

read the kernel compile howto's