modem is busy
 

i just installed linux 3hrs ago and i went to connect and it said modem is busy. what is wrong and how can i fix this?
thanks

p.s. i got a 56k us robotics performance pro modem

you may want to look at the modem howto at www.linuxdoc.org
lots of info and also has in the troubleshooting about when your modem indicates that it is busy..

-trickykid

MODEM IS BUSY!?!?
What this means depends on what program sent it. The modem could actually be in use (busy). Another cause reported for the SuSE distribution is that there may be two serial drivers present instead of one. One driver was built into the kernel and the second was a module.

In kppp, this message is sent when an attempt to get/set the serial port "stty" parameters fails. (It's similar to the "Input/output error" one may get when trying to use "stty -F /dev/ttySx"). To get a few of these stty parameters, the true address of the port must be known to the driver. So the driver may have the wrong address. The setserial" command will display what the driver thinks but it's likely wrong in this case. So what the "modem busy" really means is that the serial port (and the modem) can't be found.

If you have a pci modem, then use one of these commands: lspci, or cat /proc/pci, or dmesg to find the correct address and irq of the modem's serial port. Then check to see if "setserial" shows the same thing. If not, you need to run a script at boot-time which contains a setserial command that will tell the driver the correct address and irq. The reason that the driver has it wrong may be due to failure of the kernel to understand the lspci data correctly. You might notice this in a boot-time message.

can someone please explain to me what this means. im new to linux. how do i make a script? ect

also you may want to check out www.linmodems.org

good info pertaining to if your modem is a winmodem or not. have you checked if its a winmodem or not ?? winmodems run on software instead of hardware to operate. if you have a winmodem, there is probably a slight chance its going to work in linux.. if it does, most likely your best place to find drivers would be at www.linmodems.org

man setserial for more details on the howto...

it would look something like this.. depending on what your modem is set on.. either com1, 2 or 3..etc..

Linux = Windows
ttyS0 = com1
ttyS1 = com2
ttyS2 = com3
ttyS3 = com4

if your modem is using irq 3 on com3 lets say.. you could issue the command:

setserial /dev/ttyS2 irq 3

if there is a problem with the I/O, you can specify it as well..
then instead of running this command everytime to set this up and connect to use your modem, you would add that command in your startup scripts.. you don't necessarily have to write a script..

-trickykid

PS - before you go thru all this trouble though, find out if your modem is a winmodem or not.. not sure.. look at the manufacturers site or www.linmodems.org

my modem box saysus robotics performance pro modem.....
PCI controller-based faxmodem

says it works for...
DOS, linux (Kernal 2.3 and higher), windows 95, windows 98, nt 4.0, and win2k.

alrighty then... you shouldn't have problems getting it to work then..
now's the time to read read read.. which if your new is the best way to get used to the fact that linux isn't like windows.
i am not trying to tell you to just RTFM but in your case, there is good info, come across something you don't know about, look it up, still confused about it.. then ask if you tried and its not working still..

-trickykid

use wvdial instead, it's easier to use under SuSE.

enter /sbin/SuSEconfig at the root prompt. once thats done start yast1 and choose >system admin. > network config. > configure ppp network. select >configure current profile and check that your username/password are correct. then back out of that screen and select auto detect modem, that will scan your entire box for modems and write the proper symlinks. once thats done select run wvdial and watch the screen for error messages. if all is well it will say it's connected. then exit out of yast. to connect either click the icon by the clock (in kde) or type wvdial at the terminal.

i have mandrake 8.1

disregard the suse suggestion then.. have you tried any of the following that was mentioned above..what type of errors do you encounter ? do you know what irq and com port your modem is on ?? we can't just assume anything you have tried or how you set up your modem.
let us know.. -trickykid

sorry about that, must've saw SuSE in someone's earlier post and it was still in my head. hate it when that happens :)

nah, that is excellent suggestion for anyone searching the forums and runs across with the same problems..using SuSE of course, and if they actually do use the great search function instead of just posting first :D

-trickykid