I am trying to get a pcmcia modem up and running in Damn Small Linux
(DSL) and have been unable to get the modem to connect when I use
pppd. There seems to be some descrepencies in terms of how the modem
is listed in /dev as compared to how it is listed in other [working]
distros. I know the modem uses a couple of internal 16550A UARTs
however in DSL it comes up as two UARTs (ttyS00 and ttyS01) and in
Ubuntu it comes up as one (ttyS0). Ubuntu also automatically links
/dev/modem to ttyS0. In DSL I have attempted to do so to both ttyS00
and ttyS01 on two seperate attempts with no success. I wish I could
provide more detailed error information, however all I get is a
"Connect script failed" error in pppd.

Any ideas on this one are greatly appreciated. Please review the
information below, thanks:

=== Output of pppd in Damn Small Linux (DSL)[Not Working] ===
dsl@box:~$ sudo pppd nodetach call mymodem
Connect script failed
================================================
(this output occurs when I've tried symbolically linking /dev/modem to
/dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS00 and /dev/ttyS01)


=== Output of dmesg in Damn Small Linyx (DSL)[Not Working] ===
dsl@box:~$ dmesg
...
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
...
=================================================

=== Output of dmesg in Ubuntu [Working] ===
...
[4294669.799000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $54
ports, IRQ
sharing enabled
...
[4295038.910000] ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 5) is a 16550A
...
===================================


=== /dev/modem in Ubuntu [Working] ===
/dev/modem is symbolicly linked to '/dev/ttyS0'

ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A <<--- COM1
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A <<--- COM2

Tell the pppd program to use /dev/ttyS00. Do not forget to use setserial to set the parameters for the serial port. Also specify an AT string in the pppd program that is compatible for the modem.

It turns out neither ttyS00 or ttyS01 are the modem UARTS, I think those are serial ports on my motherboard. This pcmcia modem usually comes up as ttyS0 under other linux distributions.

So setting up pppd to use ttyS00 would write/read to the wrong serial port.

I do not think that Damn Small Linux includes PCMCIA support. Compile the kernel to include this, but the kernel will be slightly larger.

DSL should support pcmcia, the developers have included a special pcmcia utility in the disto.

The pcmcia card utility in DSL is very limited. By poking around and doing a lot of research I found a better utility that is included in DSL called cardinfo (issue cardinfo at the prompt). Cardinfo is a GUI utility that eventually identifies the card properly, but you need to keep hitting reset and some of the other options in cardinfo for a couple minutes before the card gets properly recognized. Then it finally does and gives the /dev name as ttyS2.

No idea why it takes so much effort to initialize the card in DSL though. Works quickly on same hardware with other Linux distros.

buy an ethernet rooter with an inbuilt ADSL moden

USB modens dont work well with linux and if you get it working it will never work as well as it did in windows

you will need to make shoure that linuxs sees your ethernet card with is usually fine. The advantage with this is that you can wire up lots of computers and shear the net connection with as many computers as you like with no extra cost to you internet bill and tend to be more stabler than USB modems and the like. make shoure that your rooter has an in built ADSL modem


if you need dail up the a serial modem will do that job rember
that they are all hardware modems with an easy interface that is easy for linux and windows to command

the reasion for these silly USB modems and many if not all PCI cards is that they use computer programs to take a way electronic hardware that cost the consuma letting the computer doing some of the work and tend to be smaller to and cheeper [ some times they may say hardware moden PCI or USB, just egnore them ] often called
winmodems


have a look a round the net and on linuxqueations.org if you dont belive me


here are such models UK web site.


http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...ice&show=stock

Did you read the post or did you just skim it. ngmlinux lives in America. UK stores are useless to ngmlinux and products are older than what is selling in the US.

I do not recommend buying a router with a built-in modem. The reason is because the modem will go when the router goes. I recommend both the router and modem be seperate because it gives you more choices.

ngmlinux did not say about xDSL. ngmlinux said about Damn Small Linux. Probably ngmlinux is setting up a PCMCIA 56Kbit modem.

This is not a DSL modem, it's actually a wireless modem. DSL is the name of the Linux distro I'm using (damn small linux). In any case, I've written a script for cardinfo that corrects or at least works around the problem.

sorry people about that i had just pasted it for openoffice I have done this a few times - sorry!

glad to see you got it working in DSL I just it once and put it on my hard disk