sm56 is a pain in the ass...
 

can anyone help me with my motorola sm56 pci modem? it's a software modem (winmodem) with drivers that were tested on a red hat 7.1 with kernel 2.4.x, but i'm using mandrake 8.1.

:smash:

i installed the rpm, and thought that everything will then work out fine, but when i query the modem, kde shows an error window "modem is busy or not responding" or something like that. i really don't know anything about setting up this modem because the last distro i used was a red hat 5.2, and i was using a 22.8 ext modem then.

:rolleyes:

can anyone help me? does anyone have experience or has encountered and overcome this problem?

i'm really desperate, please help. it's hard running from winxp pro to mandrake 8.1 to just download some important stuff or to just browse the web.

thanks in advance! :D

I would dump the win modem. They are trouble even within the windows environment. Win NT doesn't work with them worth a toot reliably. They aren't actually modems at all but rather only an interface between the telephone line and the computer. All the actual modem functions are handled by software and processed by your system processor. I promise you'll be glad you dumped it.

well i'm on WinXP Pro right now, it seems to work fine. still, i might as well follow your suggestion and buy a real hardware modem.

all i have is an old 33.6k usr sportster... can't even use it bcoz its a 25pin modem!

aghhh...

where'd i put my 9pin converter...?

sm56 driver: problems with kernel?
 

I'v recognised the same problem. I also use Mandrake 8.1 and Motorola sm56 modem and also doesn't work form me.
I checked some internet documentation and find out these:

The problem is probably in KERNEL VERSION.
The driver claims to work with 2.4.xxx kernels - but only with some versions of them!!!!
Problems appears with versions 2.4.7+
...and Mandrake uses 2.4.8 :)
Users with Mandrake 8.0 (kernel 2.4.3 ?) reported that it works for them.
One of them reported problem apperars after upgrading to 8.1
I'v tried also to use today newest kernel 2.4.17, self-compiled, but it also doesn't work.

After command 'modprobe sm56' appears SEGSEGV error and 'lsmod' still wrote out 'sm56 (initialising)'

I'm going to self-compile kernel 2.4.3 (or 6) now and try it with this bloody driver, (I'll make alternative boot entry for lilo - only for web-surfing :)
...until Motorola releases better one!

I'll report the result! surely!

~~ Espinosa ~~

i'm trying that too, and being a complete newbie (again...) i'm gonna try it out on LFS. i just hope i'll get it working before i decide to get a cable modem... hehehe :D

hey julo, yes sm56 is a really pain in the ass. still when i used a sm56 with rh7.1, it worked fine. yes but it never informs u when the line gets disc.

try the motorola site. it will help u out

i've been there, but i still don't have the technica expertise to find out what the problem is. i'm trying LFS out, it might help me understand the innards of the mandrake 8.1 system.

have you used sm56 in mandrake 8.1?

I'm not to used to getting modems to work under Linux, but I configured the Winmodem on my laptop with an RH7.1 RPM on Mandrake 8.0. When I went to try it, right after I got the modules loaded and the output of dmesg seemed that everything got recognized fine, suing kpppd or whatever the KDE dialer was... I got that same message. It turned out it was querying the wrong device. Try them all... I can't remember which ones, but that was my problem.

G'luck

Finegan

Motorola SM56 modem & Mandrake 8.1 - THE SOLUTION
 

yes, It works! I'm using it just now.
As I promised, I'v tried use the older kernel 2.4.3 instead of default 2.4.8 (included in Mandrake 8.1) or the newvest one, the 2.4.17 kernel.

I simply compile the downloaded kernel 2.4.3 (from ftp.kernel.org), set up via 'make xconfig' as suggested in manual (I know about excelent one, but it's in czech language, on www.root.cz :)
..and I can celebrate the success!

Everything looks working after this 'downgrade', music plays, KDE, X server, xdefsd, video player (mplayer, even configured for 2.4.17 kernel and also self compiled :) I can suggest this player to everybody!)

The problem is really in communication between newest kernels and the 'sm56' driver. I don't know, which side fails (I suppose the driver :) Until Motorola releases some new stuff, this is pobably the only way!

~~~ Espinosa ~~~
http://espinosa.3web.cz/
espinosa@centrum.cz