Although I've been using Linux for quite a while now, I've never used it in a network setup. Well now I have just gotten Comcast cable with the Motorola Surfboard modem. It seems to work very nicely in XP, but I am completly lost as to how to get it to work in Linux! Sad but true. I am trying to get it going in Suse 8.1. It finds the modem OK, but then even though I set up an ethernet card option, I still get no web access. I have used the directions supplied on Suses site, but still no luck. Can somebody help me out here? I'd REALLY like to be able to use this very very fast connection in Linux.

Thanks

did you try running dhcpcd

Yes. I did run that and also checked out ifconfig. That showed only the 127.0.0.1 ip address. If that helps any.

try ifconfig -a

this will not work until you have loaded the driver

modprobe drivername

OK. Once again I plead ignorance...which driver do you mean? The one for the modem itself or a different one? Can you let me know the name of the driver?

Thanks

the modem driver

modprobe will load it, then ifconfig -a will list all devices, it does not matter if they are configured or not, it will show them all

OK. I did what you asked and all I saw was an lo entry with the 127.0.0.1 IP address. The odd thing is that the modem shows up in modems, but not in network cards. I don't know if this matters or not, but I have this hooked up through usb.

Thanks

yes, it matters a great deal. Does it have a network card in it too. You said you setup the ethernet card option.. what is that?

it probably will not work with out loading some usb modules if it's usb.

There is also a possibility that the kernel will need to be rebuilt, maybe not
there is a program called usbview, try it and see if it shows the modem.

lsmod will list modules you have loaded. You may need to load some more usb modules with modprobe.

Also if you are using devfs you will probably need to manually create the device with mknod.

try ls -l /dev/modem see what it's linked to.


Can you give the model number, and also see if it has an RJ45 ethernet connector in it.

On the Suse knowledge base it says to install the cable modem as an ethernet connection, which I did. The program identifies it as the proper component, but under Modems not Network Cards. The model number for the modem is SB 4200. I had an ethernet card in the computer but removed it a while back because I believe it was defective. That's the reason for using the USB connection. This whole setup works fine in XP.

Thanks

You can just put your card back in and try it or get another one, you should have no problems then.

Can you explain how you went about setting it up as a network connection, and what you mean by seeing it in modems.

maybe a link to the document your talking about would help

i have concast cable too. and I have redhat 8.0 work fine with my modem ,,,,,, when you install you linux just select the option of cable modem, not ethernet card

as far as I can tell this is part of the problem



And it would be interesting to see which directions this refers to

OK. I'll try to clear this up. I plug the modem into the USB port (which is what I want to use, not ethernet). When I boot into Suse, it tells me that it found new hardware and sticks the newly found modem in the Modems. Now if you go to http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/cmodem8.html you will see what I mean about it telling the user to set it up as an ethernet connection. This does not apply to me as I am using a USB connection. Does this make any more sense?

Thanks

what is the output of lsmod?

I had the exact same thing under RedHat 8 and Mandrake 9 - I tried fooling the system into believing that it could see the USB as a network card, it didn't work for more than a few minutes. As far as I know, none of the Linux distros support usb conections for modems (please correct me if I am wrong). I installed an ethernet card and hooked it to the modem and it works fine.

As an aside, I was told in a Windows based forum that USB connections are a little slower than ethernet as some of the processing power is taken on by the pc under USB. Don't know how true this is.