Problem dialing into ISP with KPPP
 

Hi All,

I'm having problems dialing into an ISP using KPPP. I was able to set up a new account, have it recognize the modem, and dial but never seem to get a connection. After the timeout period I get a popup window that says:

"Timeout expired while waiting for the PPP interface to come up!"


The Login Script Debug Window contains:
ATZ
OK
ATM1L3
OK
ATDT303-226-0722
CONNECT 45333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS

The PPP Log contains:
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: Using interface ppp0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Mar 3 16:00:05 localhost pppd[2141]: Terminating on signal 15.
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Modem hangup
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Connection terminated.
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Exit.

/var/log/messages contains:
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost last message repeated 3 times
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost kernel: CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the Univ
ersity of California
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: Using interface ppp0
Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost pppd[2141]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Mar 3 16:00:05 localhost pppd[2141]: Terminating on signal 15.
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Modem hangup
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Connection terminated.
Mar 3 16:00:06 localhost pppd[2141]: Exit.

My only real clue is the /var/log/messages item that says "Can't locate module ppp0". I'm assuming that it is having a problem with my box rather than at the ISP. The original installation seemed to be problem free so I am assuming that things installed OK.

Since I'm new to Linux I'm not sure what to look for next. Where would I look for module ppp0 and, if it is indeed missing, where would I find it to install it.

Any help anyone could provide to this newbie would be greatly appreciated!!

Have you added yourself to the usual groups for ppp connections (by editing /etc/group or via the K control panel, pppconfig or some other utility) ? From memory you need to be in dialout and/or dip.

Cheers, M.

I can take a look at that. I was initially trying while signed on as root. Do you still need the groups for root? Can you suggest any step by step help lists for doing this for the first time. I looked in the KPPP Handbook but didn't see your suggestion so I bet there are other things that they didn't mention as well.

Thanks for the help!

Groups are for the other users. root should be able to anything.

How would I find out if the "Mar 3 15:59:35 localhost modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0" is really the thing causing the problem? I guess I would think that this would be something that should be pretty easy to solve but being new to all this I have no clue what to try next.

I forgot to mention that this is the Fedora Core 1 Linux that I am trying to run with. I don't know if that would make any difference with KPPP or not.

I think the next thing that I would need to know is whether it is the PPP on my side or on the ISP side that is not coming up. I'm assuming that it is on my side and it has something to do with the missing ppp0 module but don't know for sure.

Thanks in advance for the help!!

To make sure it's not the isp, start the modem terminal from kppp. Enter the AT* commands you saw in the login script debug window. You should see the prompt from your isp for username and password. What isp is this?

Hi. I am a newbie too and I think I had the same problem but I fixed it extending the modem waiting time to 90 seconds from within KPPP

I hope that helps :)

Thanks to both aaa and Salamandra for their ideas. I will try both of those when I get home to my Linux box. They both sound like good ideas.

One other thing I forgot to mention was that my ISP mentioned that PAP was the correct auth. type (he didn't sound too convincing - I bet they have few calls from people with Linux). I saw something in a book about secret phrases being needed for PAP. Does it sound like there could be something with that? It doesn't make too much sense to me because I know of nothing like that on the Windows side.

I have experimented with PAP, PAP/CHAP, SCRIPT, etc.

I have 3 ISPs and just one (the one that gives free access to Internet and no user name or password is required) uses SCRIPT, the other two use PAP.

I will make a research and get further information on them ;)

Hope you finally get to connect to Internet!

Salamandra

Salamandra, how did you know to use PAP? Did your ISP tell you or did you simply use trial and error until something worked?

I had the same problem ages ago when I disabled DHCP for network connections. Even though the network card is rarely used, the ppp dialout would always hang waiting for ppp to come up. Anyway, I enabled DHCP for the network card, and ppp worked fine again, so it may be worth trying this...

Computerfundi: Yes, besides increasing the times for the modem I was playing with the settings, I discovered that I can use either PAP or PAP/CHAP for my ISPs.

I was really playing as I don't know too much about them...

So you are still unable to connect to Internet?

Salamandra


P.S. Not only I increased the time for the modem connection but also for pppd. I don't know if kppp is the same for all Linux distributions but increase the times for all settings you may find :) ( I understand it's not an elegant solution but I am a newbie and that worked -and still is working-for me

Well . . . . still no dialup. Here's what I have tried so far.

I tried Salamandra's idea about increasing the timeout period and it had no effect.

I also tried aaa's idea about manually entering the modem commands from the KPPP terminal window. That was a good exercise as it showed that the "CONNECT 45333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS" message in the login script window was from the ISP. So . . . that tells me that it was waiting for my machine to do something. I also noticed a message at the bottom of the login script window which said that pppd was starting. So for whatever reason, it looks like ppp on my machine is not starting up. I never receive anything back from the ISP asking me to logon, I'm guessing that it won't happen until ppp starts.

mjrich, the DHCP idea is another good one. Can you tell me where I would look to see if that is currently enabled or disabled? I do not currently have a network card installed and not trying to connect to anything that way.

Does anyone have any ideas about where I would check to see if I might actually have pieces of ppp missing. I'm not sure where on the hard drive that this would be located. I'm guessing it might be something loosely equivalent to the "Program Files" folder in Windows.

I'm starting to feel like someone in one of the other threads who just wants to give up and stick with Windows. If anyone has any other ideas of what to look for to find out why ppp is not starting plese let me know. Also, let me know if I am not providing enough details about what is happening.

I really do appreciate everyone's help and ideas!!!!

The "CONNECT 45333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS" is from your modem, not from the ISP. You should see a login prompt from your isp if it uses PAP. ppp isn't going to work if your isp isn't letting you log in. What ISP is this?

The ISP is Mile High Online in Denver (mho.net). I have tried the other combinations for authentication (CHAP, PAP/CHAP, etc.) too with no luck that way either. I wasn't real convinced when he PAP because he said "I think it's PAP". I'm guessing maybe he was confusing PAP with PPP and has probably never had anyone ask about using Linux. I was prowling around on their website and I think I also saw something about PAP mentioned in one of their helps about setting up a MAC. I'm not really too up to speed when it comes to networking issues. Thanks!

Choose terminal-based login instead of pap/chap/etc. Then try to connect. You will have to type the username/password yourself. Post what happens here.

That's what I tried yesterday after your suggestion. Basically I typed everything into the terminal just as the log showed was done automatically (modem setup and dial stuff). The last item that came back was the CONNECT.... statement. After that I couldn't type anything else, the message at the bottom of the window displayed pppd starting and then it finally timed out. Was that what you meant to try? I never received a request for signon/password information which seemed strange and is why I was guessing that it was waiting for more from my machine. I guess I didn't realize that the CONNECT was actually coming from the modem rather than the ISP.

Well . . . two days later and I am still unable to connect to the internet via dialup with KPPP. I even went drastic and reinstalled the whole system but things are still the same. The connection continues to time out while starting pppd and the message that keeps occurring over and over in the log is:

Mar 7 11:43:15 localhost modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
Mar 7 11:43:15 localhost last message repeated 3 times

Does anyone know what this means? Is the ppp0 module really missing or is it an authority thing. As best as I can tell with my extremely limited Linux experience all the authorities seem OK. Since I'm doing all this as root I wouldn't think that there would be an authority issue. It would seem that this should be a relatively easy process to get going.

Is there another way to dialup other than KPPP that I could try? Maybe something is messed up with KPPP.

Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!

I use debian and the command line procedure to setup a ppp connection is pppconfig (/usr/sbin/pppconfig?) This takes you through the various things you need to dial out. When completed you can connect to the isp using pon and disconnect with poff. Don't forget to put the DNS #'s in /etc/resolv.conf. With regard to kppp have you gone through the setup carefully (setup button) using new connection. I don't think that ppp0 error is really relevant as it is saying later in the log that its been associated with /dev/ttyS0. Normally you'll find a ppp log. Mine exists in /var/log/ppp-connect-errors.

I could not find a pppconfig on my system although it may be there someplace.

I'm wondering if there may be a problem with ppp at a lower level than inside of KPPP. Is there a place where I could get another (newer or older) version of ppp to install and try?

You have yet to find out whether you ISP is responding. Try to connect manually, and see what response you get from them. KPPP lets customize what it does to log in. The ppp will not work if you don't log in to your ISP properly. You can also dial manually in Windows with Hyper-Terminal.

I did what you (aaa) suggested last Friday and selected the terminal based signin approach. It did the initial dialing and then opened the terminal window. Unfortunately the window wouldn't let me type anything even though I tried. The window seemed locked. Is there a way to get it to allow entry? What I had planned to enter was userid/passwork as suggested.

Any idea of what to try next? Is there a chance that there is something else that I need to set up before trying again. My thinking was that KPPP would work in a similar way that Dialup Networking does in Windows and set up anything behind the scenes that needs to be done. Is this a flawed assumption and actually there is more, maybe even much more that I need to do? In essence I jumped right to KPPP immediately after Linux loaded for the first time.

I did some searching on the web and haven't seen anything that has helped at all. One idea I saw was to run "ifconfig ppp0" to see how the ppp0 interface was setup but it returned a message saying that there was no ppp0 interface.

Thanks!

Until you get the 'CONNECT', from the modem, you can only type modem commands. Once connected, you can type to your ISP. Your ISP should ask for your username, then you type it. Typing before it asks probably will result in it not getting the name. If the ISP doesn't appear to respond, try pressing enter after the modem connects to see if that makes it respond.

KPPP is supposed to work right away. The only 'behind-the-scenes' thing Windows does that KPPP doesn't is automatically determining what authentication is need, and the options for this are in the combobox with PAP, CHAP/PAP, terminal-based... etc.

I doubt the problem is with PPP, I think it is with your ISP not responding. Try to find out how Windows does it. Log the connection and examine the logs in Windows. There is a checkbox for that somewhere in Dial-up Networking. Or maybe you can get a Windows dialing program that shows you what Windows is doing.

Sound like the same problem I'm having with Red Hat 9... It tries
to connect, times out, and log says can't find ppp0... and this is a
modem and ISP that worked fine with Red Hat 8...I'm stumped!
Good luck, and let me know if you have any luck!

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=182073

It turns out that the problem seemed to be with the serial port that I connected the external modem to. This is an HP machine with an internal modem (Winmodem I assume) and it appears to be tied with the same port that I was connecting the external modem to. I knew that the internal was working with Windows 98 so I decided to reinstall 98 and try the serial port and discovered that the external didn't work there either. Then I discovered a second serial port on the front of the machine behind a little door. I tried the external there and it worked fine so I reinstalled Fedora and it worked there as well. Pretty strange. It does appear that your messages are similar in regard to being unable to locate ppp0 but I'm not sure that the solution would be the same since your modem did work previously. Good luck but I'm not sure this will be much help to you.