Hi, I have just installed Mandrake 7.2 and although it recongizes my modem and I know the I/0 etc. the OS doesn't seem able to communicate through the modem at all.
I don't know if it is because we are on a dial up server here or what but I am getting a little frustrated with the whole deal. I thought Linux was supposed to be so much better than Windows but so far the support is meager, the documentation is not any better and the ease of use is really bad. Is there anyone out there that would be interested in helping me walk through what I may be doing wrong or missing when I am trying to set up my internet connection?

You might want to let us know what kind of modem your using?

Type of Modem
 

Sorry, I am using a US Robotics 56k ISA MODEM. COM 3 is the port it is using in windows.
Ask more questions if it helps us both.
I have the dns numbers etc. for logging onto my ISP.

Okay first before we get any further, go to http://www.linmodems.org and see if your modem is supported under Linux. They have a large list there of modems that people have gotten to work and some that tell you if it is a winmodem or not. Unless you know if yours is a winmodem or not already.

It is supported, at least it shows up in the linux configuration list, so I assumed it was supported. Now what.

Hi,
Does anyone have any idea why my US Robotics,
ISA, internal PnP Voice-Fax modem, Model No.5685,
V90, x2, would not want to work either under
Linux Mandrake7.0-2 or Linux Mandrake 7.2 that I
have just downloaded and have been trying to
install?

It just simply would not dial. It comes back with
a message "Sorry, modem is busy". I have tried to
tweak the COM port settings and modify the modem
type under Linux but nothing worked. Currently
the modem is working on COM3 under Win98.

By the way I am complete "beginner dummy" in Linux
and this has been keeping me from testing the
waters of the Linux world so far for a year now.
I can not even go online with Linux so far. :(((((

Thanks a lot in advance for any input!!!

Is the settings mandrake has given the modem the same as in windows (including port and I/O). If not then you can use the setserial command to change what you need to.

Do you have permissions to use the modem file, which is it is COM3 would be /dev/ttyS2. If not change it by issuing the command:

chmod o+rwx /dev/ttyS2

as the root user. Try finding the modem as root, if you can. Mandrake should have KDE documentation already installed on the system. There is quite a bit of help on kppp which is the dialer I assume you are using.

I wouldn't worry about not being able to get online with Linux. I still am trying after about 2 months!

i don't know if this will help,but here goes.
You may have to edit the isapnp.conf for the i/o port
and the irq, and then use the setserial command in a
terminal to set it up. if this works you can add the setserial to the end of the etc/rc.d/*rc.local so that
you dont have to re-type it every session.
if isapnp.conf does not exist you can make it by moving into the /etc directory and typing (pnpdump > isapnp.conf) . I'm not sure how this works if there are more than one board detected. I hope this helps if you dont already have it going.