dial up 56k won't connect

this is the error message from the log "pppd[0] died; pppd options error (exit code 2)"
any idea's on how to fix this ?

info:
acer aspire laptop 3500
the modem: [ALI] AC97 modem controller

(i don't know what other info you need to fix it)


P.S. yes i am a noob to linux i've only had installed for 2 days some any guidance or help is really great

The way you start to decipher that error message is to consult the pppd man page by typing (in a terminal window or virtual terminal -- you'll probably use a terminal window):

man pppd

Most commands and sometimes configuration files etc. have man pages ("man" is short for "manual") that you access in this manner. The pppd man page has a section called "EXIT STATUS." In that section we find status 2 listed as

I am being systematic here since you have identified yourself as a noob, so that you can begin to increasingly help yourself.

Additional info you should supply is what distribution and version (e.g.. SuSE 10.1) you are running, and if you can determine it, what dialup tool (such as kppp, wvdial, etc) are you using. And if you can figure out how, what options are supplied when pppd is called. (If not, just post back w/o it.)

i'm using suse 10.1
and the tool i'm using is k internet (don't know if thats the right tool)

OK. I verified there is such a tool as Kinternet (not trying to insult you, but this is the first I've heard of it). For your future reference (and googling!) there doesn't appear to be a space in the name and I think the K is capitalized.

Unless another kind poster can immediately point you to the solution, I'm going to give you a little leg work to do. I've already done some of it for you. From what I can tell, with Kinternet, getting the error you got can be misleading.

I did a google search on "kinternet" and the phrase "pppd options error (exit code 2)." One of the results returned was this LQ thread which you might take a look at to see the problems others have had and what has been tried. (It wasn't really solved, it was on other hardware, and a different versions of Suse.)

I saw some indications (but didn't really get it confirmed) that your modem might be a so-called "winmodem" or software modem. Usually, that is not good. I was googling on the terms "ac97" and "modem." I hope what I was looking at was what is in your computer. This project was started to develop a GPL driver for it for the Linux kernel, but it looks like that project didn't go anywhere. (All the dates are serveral years old and they have not released any files yet.)

So what you can do is do some googling (or other search engine), and maybe also use the search here on LQ to see what you can find out:

1. Is this really a software modem?
2. Can you find any driver for it, or perhaps there is already one on your computer? One of the places you might look is here.
3. Can you find a case where somebody has actually sovled this problem -- not necessarily on your hardware or exact version of Suse but close enough it might give us more info to work with.

I also found this page which might have, or lead you to some useful information.

The were a couple of items on that LinuxQuestions link I provided above you might want to pay particular attention to:

1. The item about slmodemd in post #7
2. The attempt in post #1 to use kppp instead of Kinternet (If that is available on your system.)
3. You might consider just using an external modem.

If you need to set the SUID bit on pppd (post #1 of that LQ thread again), open a terminal window, become root using the su command and type:

That's all I can tell you for now. Maybe somebody else will post with some good ideas or the miracle cure. See what you can find out based on what I've said. If you have some more information that you want to run by me, feel free to post back.

Good luck.