I have knoppix installed to hdd on my toshiba satellite A10 and i have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get on the net with it. It has an inbuilt toshiba software modem that according to the scanModem utility should work with the slmodem 2.9.5 driver.
I downloaded that driver and installed it according to the readme file and everything seems to be ok but when i try to dial using wvdial it gives the error "carrier detected but signal lost" and then prints a whole lot of gibberish on the screen.
What could be causing this?

I also have an old kingmax pcmcia modem which i was hoping would work if the toshiba software one didnt. Is this modem compatible with linux?

thanks in advance

WOOHOO!!!!! I GOT IT WORKING!!!

i reran the scanModem utility and this time read the ModemDriverCompiling file and about halfway down it has a heap of instructions on how to test your connection afterwards.
I changed the /etc/ppp/options file to include "usepeerdns".
I created the symbolic link /dev/modem to /dev/ttySL0 with "ln -s /dev/modem /dev/ttySL0" (i think thats what it was)
Then ran "ifconfig eth0 down"
then tried dialing with wvdial and it still didnt work.
so then i tried with kppp and it worked !!!


Edit:
next up compiling the new linux 2.6.2 kernel.

i also have a software modem on a satellite a20. the thing is that i´m really new at this. is it hard to compile the downloaded file? where did you find it. any help would be greatly appreciated

It was a long time ago that i did this and i cant remember how i did it. Im now at uni and get on the net through the network so i dont even use the modem anymore.
Try doing a google search for "scan modem utility". When you run that it gives you a list of drivers that will possibly work with your modem.
If this doesnt work or you cant find it, try doing a google for "linux software modem" or "linmodem" or something along those lines.

sorry i couldnt offer more help