Hello linux people out there,

Ive been using Mandrake 10 for a year or so, love it to bits.
I've installed Mandrake 10.1 Official from DVD onto my (old) notebook as a test run before I install it onto my main machine.
(kde feels quite snappy for a PIII 650 btw)

The notebook has a lucent winmodem that I have got working in the past, but I'm not worrying about that for now. For my dial-up, i've connected a standard external modem on a serial port.

The problem I am having is that when I use Kppp, it appears to find the modem fine (the lights change like its going to dial), but then gets stuck on "initialising modem", without going further with the dialing. On my main machine (mandrake 10), I use kppp with the same modem and the same settings (that ive seen) without any trouble.

This is where it gets interesting. New in Mandrake 10.1 is an icon that monitors network connections on the kicker (the tray). Clicking on this brings up the dial up status, that includes a button 'connect'. Clicking on this with make the modem start dialing my isp, but before it finishes the handshake, it will error and say that it couldnt connect (like the wait time for the handshake timeout is too short or something).. Im pretty sure that this icon loads the mandrake program 'draknet_monitor'.

I dont think it is anything specific to do with hardware as Ive tried both my external modems, and have used this notebook with linux and the external modems before.

Has anyone got suggestions for why this might be happening, or some suggestions for different dialers? Ive tried wvdial, but couldnt set it up right. I'm wanting to sort this out, since I'm thinking this might happen on my main desktop machine as well, leaving me with no net access (!!!)

Cheers
-Ryan

Update:
I've also tried the command ifup ppp0. This will dial the modem, and it will handshake completely, but after that stops it the modem hangs up..
The install is FRESH. I haven't changed any default settings or installed anything different. I went through the mandrake connection wizard to set up. I've very confused!

hi,
first check your modem with query modem in modem tab,if it goes empty without any information of your modem it means linux cannot connect to your modem,initializing modem and then hanging up means that linux cannot connect to modem,that modem is not set to the proper port or your modem need a linux driver for it,about tiime out,uncheck the use lockfile and change the line termination then see wich is proper for you.

Thanks for your reply.

yep, ive checked all those things. As I said, the modem does start dialing when you connect a certain way, so linux is finding it and communicating with the modem through the right comm port.. Also its a standard external modem.. no special drivers necessary.. im using this modem on mandrake 10.0 right now!

Maybe where i wasn't quite clear, was the fact that kppp doesnt get past the initializing modem point.. it doesnt fail, it just sits displaying that on the screen.. However if dial throught 'draknet_monitor', (loaded via the little network icon new to the kicker in 10.1)., the modem will start dialing and handshakes, but it only gives it 19 seconds to connect.. not long enough..

Ive been using linux for ages, so Im confident of my settings (and they are the same as my mandrake 10.0 setup)..
Im starting to think it could be something strange about my notebook and the kernel..

Have people had success with external serial modems in mandrake 10.1?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xxx_Birdman_xxx
[B]Thanks for your reply.

yep, ive checked all those things. As I said, the modem does start dialing when you connect a certain way, so linux is finding it and communicating with the modem through the right comm port.. Also its a standard external modem.. no special drivers necessary.. im using this modem on mandrake 10.0 right now!

I have a new install of Mdk 10.1 and cannot get external hardware modem to work. Repeated installs tell me " System does not appear to be connected to internet".. modem is listed on it's packaging as being linux compatible. Same modem okay in WinXP.