complete noob with several issues in suse 10.0
 

first off i would like to say hello to everyone on the forum here,and introduce myself(and keep it short and sweet so i dont give everyone eyesores)im matt(hence animematt),im 20,im a complete linux noob,would like to consider myself a advanced windows user(i guess that was short enough)

now on with my issues,i just recently installed suse 10.0 with gnome and i am having a couple of issues,ill state the easiest to awnser first

i downloaded a game called rats and spears(little freeware game) just to get the grips of installing a simple program that didnt come pre installed,well it came in the usual linux tar ball(i guess thats whats its called) but it has no exe(which i completely understand is native to the windows/dos platform) just wondering where id start with that


now with the issue that you all have probley heard billions of times

i have a hp pavilion laptop(model ze2108mw)and im trying to connect to the net via dial up(broadband works perfect,when im at a friends house or my girlfriends) but when i open up yast and look at my modem it finds it(heletpackard - modem- not set)when i go to configure it it it doesnt have a port configured,so i set it up to ttyS3(im assuming it would be com 3 since it is in windows)and finish the config(which it says it completes fine),well when i go to wvdial i get the error "cant open /dev/modem: input/output error
now being the fact in windows im pretty sure it has a driver for it(though i could be wrong i couldnt locate it in the add/remove programs(yeah it shows my nic/wireless drivers in there....just cant find my dial one there :scratch: ) so im assuming a driver besides a generic modem driver would be needed

or am i just setting it up wrong.....

also in the device manager in windows its showing "ac97 data fax softmodem with smartcp"



if any other information is needed just let me know(i do have the tendency to leave things out that is important)


i would like to applogize for any spelling errors and for my complete lack of punctuation,i just find it quicker to type
and like to thank anyone who helps

im completly doing this in the hopes of being better where i wont have to ask anyone for help and help others


one last thing,thanks for bearing with my,i know its annoying being asked the same question 30000 times a month (i know how it is i work for a dsl company :p )

Hi

Welcome to LQ.

1. With regard to the program you downloaded, you say that you downloaded a tarball, which would indicate that it looks like:

NAMEOFPROGRAM-2.1.X.tar.gz (or bz2)

If so, this is a source code program which must be compiled and installed. You did not mention whether you had extracted and installed it. If you already know how to extract and install, then the program can be run just by type the name of the program into the command line (when you are in the directory it was installed to.

The modem you have described is the dreaded winmodem (software modem) and while they can be made to work with Linux, they can be a nightmare. You may get some help here:

http://linmodems.org/

An external modem is far easier as no driver is needed.

Hope this helps

Bob