I have an Actiontec USB CAll Waiting Modem. It's a hardware modem, and I have heard its possible to use it with Linux, but all of Actiontec's Linux pages are down (they are apparently re-doing their site for some reason, looks the same to me) I must confess I am pretty confused as to why it does not work, since it when I click connect (I'm using Mandrake 8.2 /w KDE) It says Dailing and then the On Hook light on my modem lights up, but then it never proceeds to dial.

Thanks in advance

Are you certain that it's a hardware modem? I had a USB modem that was software. Check out the Linux USB site.

I'm not too sure, in Windows it has an Auxiliary driver. This is the modem I have

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?sku=A190-3004

If it is a software modem, what can I do?

i have a cretaive usb modem v.90

and i can't install it on mandrake 8.2 it is know under the directory named others in harddrake
what shall i do
can anyone help me

After reading the modem manual for like, the 50th time, I noticed that under features it says:

Completely Controller-based.

So it isn't a winmodem. I don't know what chipset is uses exactly, but it says "The Lucent Edge" on the box, but not the exact chipset (not in the manual, or actiontec website either)

I've heard of a lot of people being able to use Lucent based chipsets with Linux, but I'm not exactly sure how to do it =P

Thanks in advance,

Oh I forgot to mention, I KNOW Linux is recognizing the USB Ports, because I also have a USB Mouse, which works fine =P (thankfully)

Of course i'm in Windows when I answer a question I need Linux for. Anywho, I believe the kernel's USB section has a USB modem support feature that you may want to check to see that it's a module or built-in. Since it's controller based, that's great, but USB modems still seem to work a bit more quirky than a serial modem. By what you said, it uses a Lucent chipset which, if you go to linmodems.org may be able to find the serial# or specific version for. You may need to use some help from there anyhow.

I've been to the site (linmodems.org) and it seems to be geared more towards people with software modems then people with hardware modems. I beleive it might be that the USB Modem feature is not enabled, but I have /no/ idea how to enable it =P

I gather it has something to do with re-compiling the kernal. I do have some C/++ experiencve, but I have no idea where to start when it comes to recompiling linux, especially w/out breaking it. I have Mandrake 8.2 would that have the USB Modem feature already enabled?

If only I could tell linux to use the USB to look for the modem, it tries to look in ttcy0-(some number, I forget) but it /won't/ look in /dev/usb/acm


Thanks in advance,

~hmm~

When I looked in the control panel under USB Devices, it displays both my USB mouse, and the modem (it calls it by the modem's name too, Actiontec USB Modem) But I can't figure out how to configure Linux to USE the modem..

It's quite rare for a hardware modem to have Lucent chips in. Even though it says it's 'completely controller based', it may still be a winmodem. Mandy 8.1 recognised my USB modem and called it by name (Diamond SupraMax), and I couldn't get it to work. The Lucent drivers possibly will work, but it's not gonna be easy. Personally, I gave my USB modem to a friend that didn't use Linux, and took their serial one...never looked back.

Actually, I just got it to work! Heres what happened:

When I ran the modem detection process, Linux incorrectly configured /dev/modem to point to ttyS0. So all I had to do was delete /dev/modem and type

ln -s /dev/usb/acm/0 /dev/modem

and voila!

On the downside, the carrier wave sounds don't work, so even though I had actually gotten it wokring days ago, I thought I hadn't =(

On the bright side, the Call Waiting feature still works, which is great!

Please note I did not need any linmodem drivers for this thing either, it turned out it /was/ hardware based after all.

in a terminal window enter this:mknod /dev/usb/ttyACM0 c 166 0
now to get it to work in kpppd. open 2 konqurer file browser windows. 1 for /dev and one for /dev/usb. Now drag the ttyACM0 device from the /dev/usb window to the /dev window and create a link there. Now rename the link to ttyACM0, modem. Next go to kpppd and select modem. It should find it and you'll be able to use kpppd to run it.
This works in Red Hat 7.2 don't know if it will work in Mandrake