The system this question refers to is the one in this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=171906


I think my problem is that the O.S does not load a driver for my modem.
In any case, the internet connection program cant find the modem.

The O.S is Libranet 2.7

I took a look at my /var/log/dmesg file and it shows that at least
'isapnp' can see my modem with the lines:

isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards.....
isapnp: Card 'SupraExpress 56i Sp Intl'
isapnp: Card 'Creative SB16 Pnp'
isapnp: 2 Plug & Play cards detected total.

I take this to be a good thing.

The driver for the soundcard is then loaded and configured
Again, here is a portion from my dmesg file:

Soundblaster audio driver
Copyright(C) by Hannu Savolainen
1993-1996

etc.......

then right at the end this message is repeated a number of times:

ttyS2: LSR safety check engaged!



My soundcard plays a test sound in the sound configuration program
on the desktop, so that eliminates the possibility of a faulty pci bus.
Although there is a line that persists even when I boot up with both soundcard and modem removed and it is:

PCI: No IRQ known for interuppt pin A of device 00:0.1. PLease try using pci=biosirq

(I dont know if this line is important but it did stick out to me. Even if it is
important I wouldn't have a clue what file I would put "pci=biosirq" in.
But if you think this line is significant please dont hesitate to tell me.)


Now, as evidenced by the dmesg file, what is not happening is that the driver for the modem is not being loaded.

At first I thought it could be because my modem was a winmodem
but after much googling I found:

at this site:


and a further confirmation at this site:
http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=cac...t+linux+&hl=en

that my modem is a hardware modem and not a winmodem. (plus the fact that it is big with lots of chips on it.)


So does this mean the OS doesnt have the driver?
If it does, where does it keep them?


Whats the next step?


Any help would be most appreciated.

you may need to make a new isapnp configuration with the isapnp tools to initialize the modem at certain settings. there are howto's around. it's not really easy.

Hi whansard, thanks for the prompt relpy.

I followed these instructions:


Thanks for all the advice. I followed the Suse setserial trail. and was able to configure the modem by doing:
1. pnpdump > /etc/isapnp.conf
2. uncomment the part of isapnp.conf which sets io to 0x3e8 and irq to 4 (corresponding to /dev/ttyS2) and also remove the (CHECK) on the io line
3. setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART unknown
4. isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf
5. setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART 16550A
6. Yast2 to setup the connection from here.
7. edit /etc/rc.d/boot.local to include step # 5


From this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...apnp+setserial

but when i got to step 4(isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf)
it didnt like it and said it couldnt understand the parts that I had
uncommented(as instructed in step 2.) in the isapnp.conf file.

If that had succeeded would the OS then release a driver for it at boot time?

you're not really messing with a driver. you're trying to get the piece of hardware initialized in a way that will work. you can try a different set of settings in that isapnp.conf file.

that file is really tricky looking, and hard to get the right stuff uncommented. keep trying.
different stuff in that file. you probably will not hurt anything, and can start over at any time.

whansard said:
Ok, I'll have another go and get back to you.

Thanks

Well I managed to get the modem going. I even did a little surfing.

The trouble now is that the modem doesnt configure itself at boot time.
I have to do it manually from the desktop.

I can get up to step 5. ( setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART 16550A)

but I cant do either step 6 or 7
(6. Yast2 to setup the connection from here.
7. edit /etc/rc.d/boot.local to include step # 5)

I am running Libranet which doesnt have yast2
and I dont have a boot.local file either.

Right now (from the desktop) all I have to do to get the modem to go
is perform these two steps (in this order as well)

4. isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf
5. setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART 16550A

but there must be some way to automatically do this during
the boot process.

Any ideas?

Correction; I have to run step 3 as well to get the modem going.

boot files are in /etc/rc.d in most distros. usually there is an rc.local, but it can vary by distribution. you can add stuff to /etc/rc.d/rc.local if that's where the suse boot files are.
i'll check for you in a little bit and see. i thought you had suse, i'll check libranet.

libranet has startup files in /etc/init.d and /etc/rc.<runlevel> and a few others.

probably adding whatever commands you want done at the end of
/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh
will do what you want.
add them before the : exit 0 line
then they should be executed at boot.

Great! That worked perfectly.
So heres what I did(for anyone else whom this might help)

I put these lines:

setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART unknown
isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf
setserial /dev/ttyS2 UART 16550A

in this file:

/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh


Thank you very much Whansard, your 'Guru' title is truly deserved.

cheers.

aw shucks. thanks.

go to this URL to find a good HOWTO on how to setup PPP with a ISA PNP modem

http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Modems/ISA_PNP_Modems.html

I found this link from the following URL:

http://linuxbasics.org/linuxbasics/ModemConfiguration

I have Libranet 2.8.1 and just successfully setup PPP with a PNP 16bit ISA modem following the instructions in the first URL I posted above.

note: follow the last step above to automate the process after every boot or use the method in the HOWTO at the URL above.