Fun with my new modem
 

I am having difficulties with getting my modem to work in my Linux world. I am running dual OS's (Win98/RH7.0). I installed RH just a few weeks back and quickly discovered that my winmodem wouldn't work. So I ordered a new US Robotics modem that supports Linux. I have installed it and I still cannot get the system to recognize it.

After booting I looked at the boot log and it tells me that the modem is /dev/ttyS00 (yes, 2 0's) and is using IRQ3.

Using Dial-Up configuration in RH, I have the system search for the modem but it never finds it.

When I check the settings in Windows, it tells me that the modem is COM5 and using IRQ 5. I have removed the modem through the device manager and reinstalled it several times but it still insists on calling it COM5 and using IRQ 5. I manually configured it to use IRQ 3 (which is free) and it will use IRQ 3, then I can't access the modem at all even in Windows.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any help you may give.

As an aside, I discovered that when I view these pages in IE5.5 using my new "linmodem", I can't view any of the threads once I'm in a forum. Should I try Netscape in Windows as well? I'm able to use IE at work and the threads are visible.

Thanks again!

First you should disable Plug n' Play in your system's bios.Not having used RH7,I can only assume that it still uses Kudzu to detect new hardware.Did the Kudzu app. start during boot?I disabled PnP in bios and MDK7.1 saw and configured all my hardware right off.HTH
lynch

So far, no joy.

I have disabled PNP in BIOS, but the configuration is still the same. Didn't have time last night to delve deeper.

Next steps will be to remove the modem and reinstall it. Which begs the question, since my RH7 still insists on calling it /dev/ttyS00, is there anyway to remove a device in Linux via command line? Of course, I'm not sure if I can remove a device that doesn't actually exist in /dev.

As far as the other note, Netscape works fine in the same site on the same computer. First time I've run across that. Looks like I'll just have to run both IE and Netscape on my Windows side. And as soon as I get the modem configured properly in Linux, it's a moot point.

Thanks for the pointer Lynch.

The modem device is only a symbolic link the correct serial port, in your case ttyS00 (wich is com1 in Windos). What happens when you try to point the /dev/modem symbolic to /dev/ttyS04 (com5). The commands are:

# rm /dev/modem
# ln -s /dev/ttyS04 /dev/modem

Not 100% sure about order of last arguments in last row, but check syntax 'man ln' /dev/modem is target.

Ugge,

Thanks for the tip. That's the closest I've been so far. When I debug the connection it will sit for a minute trying to digest the AT command and then replies with a "cannot connect". Previously all attempts were an immediate "cannot connect" or "device not found".

The instructions for the symbolic link were good. The instructions included with the modem are:

cd /dev
rm modem
ln -s ttySX

What I'm still trying to figure out is what the symbolic link would be. Looks incomplete based on the man page.

Anyway, I'm to the point now I'm going to cut my losses (for the immediate future). Based on everything I've read on this and other topics over the past week, I think I'm going to reformat my entire drive, repartition it, and install both Win98 and RH7.0 from scratch.

I'm waiting for my copy of RH7 Unleashed to arrive in the mail. Hopefully I'll stick to the book and do things step by step instead of willy-nilly like I am now. I'm having problems with other programs in RH running and I'm quite sure that it's due to my mucking around more than anything.

And if there's anything that I've learned so far is that I need to keep a log book. I'm sitting here now trying to flip through an unorganized pile of papers trying to find notes on what I did to such and such file two days ago. Not good.

Thanks again for the pointers!