My notebook is latitude v710
I am trying to surf the web with Mandrake 9 (2.4.19-16mdk) i download the latest pctel drivers from linmodems.org
I did the following
./configure -auto
make
make install
after make configure and make dep in the kernel
everything goes perfect
insmod pctel.o
insmod ptserial.o goes without the -f option with the customary tainted kernel warnings,
lsmod shows
ptserial and pctel with one using another
all is well till here
i try wvdial and it cannot find modem after two faint beeps
repeats the process three times and stops
.
kppp is another story, it says modem found and then everything freezes no keyboard, no mouse no ctrl +alt+f2 nothing
power button seems very eager to work, and the cap lock and scroll lock flashes continously


now then I used a modemscan utility from a certian website and it gives a report:
Obviously I am a so called and I was introduced to this challenging REAL computing environment by KNOPPIX , I have done atleast ten reinstalls since them firstly to get a proper system going and secondly and principally in hope to surf the net on wave of Linux..............

This is the first time I have turned to a forum for guidance, I need not mention that any help will be highly appreciated:

i bet that since running kppp with that modem locked
up your machine, that the kernel setup you have isn't
going to work.
you should try the different versions of the pctel driver
you can find. try the old versions and work your way
up.

guess i'll have to wait then coz this is the latest and the only chip that has support for the i8xxx chip

Another thing I noticed is that
ac_97 codec is being used by i810_audio as well as many other modules could this be where the problem arises?

I am being arrogant becoz the whole process of installation goes so smoothly that I cannot belive the solution is very complicated

Now its just a guess but I am thinking that maybe the nodes are going wrong here, I mean I dont know what I am talking about here but is it possible that my modem is pointing to something basic like the processor, instead of the modem, and thats why when i activate the modem kppp says "modem found" before locking up the whole system okay you can laugh if u like but I am kinda desperate here, those damn external modem's price will taint the very principle of open source
in the mean time here is a list of events that occured while using wvdial
by the way is there a command for me to see which modules point to(or whatever) to which device and which piece of hardware is a ccertain entity in /dev/** refering to
Thanks heaps

lsmod shows what modules are loaded.

trying a different kernel might work.

you don't need to be messing with the devices unless
you are following instructions.

the /dev/modem isn't a device. it's a symlink to the actual
modem device. ls -l /dev/modem

ac_97 is a module for built in sound card support mostly.

I have tried to find somewhere to download a kernel but I have utterly failed, I must say one of mandrake websites is a shame to the open source community, anyway umm here's something else that could provide some information
Build Number : 2195

=====================================
= RESULT OF MODEM QUERY
=====================================
NUMBER OF MODEMS FOUND = 1

MODEM #1:
PCI CONFIGURATION INFORMATION READ:
VENDOR ID : 8086
DEVICE ID : 2486
SUBVENDOR ID : 134D
SUBDEVICE ID : 4C21
REVISION ID : 02

DEDUCED INFORMATION:
VENDOR NAME : ICH
DEVICE NAME : ICH3
SUBVENDOR NAME : UNKNOWN
MODEM TYPE : HSF
WINXP INBUILD SUPPORT : NO
______________________________________________
Other trivial log:
ug 16 18:35:36 localhost kernel: ttyS15 at 0x2400 (irq = 10) is a PCTel
Aug 16 18:35:36 localhost kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:1f.6
Aug 16 18:35:36 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:1f.3
Aug 16 18:35:36 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:1f.5
Aug 16 18:35:36 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 02:01.0
==========================================

installing a kernel is tough for a newbie. you'll probably
just end up mad and frustrated.
about my only other suggestion is trying different
distributions of linux, which will all have different kernels.
most linmodem drivers are hacks. i'm using the lucent
one right now. if it were a normal driver, you wouldn't
have to be installing a driver for it at all. it would be in
the kernel already.
it could just be something in the mandrake kernel
that is crashing your machine with that driver, or that
the driver isn't stable with your version of the chip in
that computer. it could be something in most or all
kernels that's messing up.
there are some kernel compiling howto's on the web,
if you want to frustrate yourself some. or challenge
yourself.

Yesterday while doing my usual messing around I got gnomeppp to dial my isp two times but the connection was refused maybe the authentication thing, pap, chap wasn't set up correctly and I hadn't bothered with the dns thingie either , as far as I can see it was because I changed my bios setting to 'no paralel port", could u give a briefing on what this parallel port thing is all about just the basic idea I do catch up things quite fast? There are three chioces, one is customised where I have to set things up myself from around three drop down menus with about four choices, the other is auto where the operating system decides the settings and the last one is no parallel port.I have always thought that parallel port is the 24 pinned socket which streams into the bus and and serial port is the 14 pinned port for used for ancient mouse. How could parralel port muck with pci??
BTW the compter eventually did lock up and with the customary caps and scroll lock flashings......
Your help has been very valuable...

the parallel port and serial ports use irq's, and if you
disable them, they are free for other devices to use.
so, when you disable them, some of the hardware may
get changed to different irq's

whatsard u r the man, I am typing this in mozilla I tried palying around with drake after installing a new kernel
2.4.19-16mdk.1-1mdk.rpm not sure about the name :
i got a new option in lilo but after loggin in with that uname -r still shows me the old kernel any I got into drake > network>internet and tried connect
there was no sound but then it did work, so thanks heaps for that even though I am not sure if I can repeat this mean feat next time around.
BTW is there a way to kinda take a snap shot of my system and keep it exactly the way it is at this hallowed moment?
Thanks heaps.

I just found that I am running a total of 6 modules for the modem, two from pctel and ptserial and 4 hsf limodem modules from a previous rpm installation that got into the newly compiled kernel
,,,,,,,,,ANY THING THAT WORKS........

thanks. glad to help. i think.
those modules that are unused will probably get pulled
from memory after running a little while.
most of your installations settings are in /etc
the kernels are in /boot
the modules are in /lib/modules, under the kernel version
number.
you can make a backup directory if you wish.
mkdir /usr/backup
cp -rv /etc /usr/backup
cp -rv /boot /usr/backup
cp -rv /lib/modules /usr/backup

this is the thrid time I've dialed in and I am feeling pretty comfortable that I will be able to repeat it in future though, I have to go through the following process to insure that the computer doesnot lock up:
recompile and make and install the driver each time around
mgetty
getty
minicom
close minicom
wvdial
i was think about creating a batch file to do all of the above so that my world gf can also dial from linux.

Another phenomenon that I have noticed is that the four hsf modules that i talked about load by themselves when i insmod pctel and ptserial, perhaps they have found some parameters to share???

On a completely different note, I dont have a swap partition , i thought it was for prehistoric computers and my 128 mb would be enough, but now i realise that the kernel runs all the time in the memory and sometimes things get a bit slow. Now I do have four primary partitions and I have partitioned my hard drive as many times as I have installed OSes which is quite a lot, but I have never figured out how to make secondary partitions......
Any IDEA's??

you can make a swap file
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile.swp bs=1M count=200
thats for 200 meg swapfile
mkswap /swapfile.swp
swapon /swapfile.swp

don't delete or change the file without running
swapoff /swapfile.swp
you can put it where you want or make what size you want too.
swapon /swapfile.swp is all you need to enable the
file from then on. you can put it in a startup script
or fstab. you can name it what you want also.

Thanks the swap file is up and running, I think I wouldn't want to mess with the fstab on my own, I would fancy the startup script though, if I knew where it is I would probably want to add insmod pctel and ptserial as well,
other four modules are loading themselves so i think they will continue to do so:

mandrake might have rc.local
in /etc/rc.d/
it could easily be somewhere else, or maybe not exist.
MasterC uses mandrake, so he would know for sure.