Agere AC97 Winmodem with kernel 2.6.13
 

Hello everybody,

sorry for asking the 1 millionth question about Winmodems, but despite googling and searching LQ.org and LinModems.org I haven't found what I am looking for (or, maybe, overlooked it).

What I want to do:

I would like to run Slackware on an old Notebook computer with an Agere AC97 internal modem. Currently Slack 10.2 runs just fine with kernel 2.6.13, already, but I use an external modem, while I am posting this. This is ok for the moment, but I'd like to avoid having to carry the external modem with me when I travel. I'd prefer to use the internal modem, if possible.

Now, unfortunately, there are no Winmodem drivers included with Slackware. I've found some postings pointing to download sites, but none of the sites seems to work.

My questions are:

- Where can I download a kernel 2.6.13 compatible driver for my Agere AC97 modem?
- Will udev create a device node for the modem, once the driver is installed?
- If not: What's the best way to do this myself? How should the device file be named?

Thanks a lot for your kind support, again.

gargamel

Hello!

I you haven´t found drivers for you your modem on the download sides for the chipset or laptop (manufactorer), you won´t be able to run your modem. Winmodem are usually not supported by linux.

Greetings

You likely need an ltmodem driver. Agere picked up Lucents modem business/chipsets. To double check run "lscpi" as root.
There are really good ltmodem drivers for the 2.4 kernel series and someone has hacked them to work the 2.6 kernel. Just google for "ltmodem"

Thanks, yes, I knew that. But there most likely *is* a Linux driver for that specific modem. If I get it right, Agere is the new name of Lucent, and I had internal Lucent softmodems running just fine on various laptop computers with SuSE Linux, which has the necessary driver included. Unfortunately, Slackware doesn't include that driver. But I found many places with download links where the driver once could be downloaded. Regrettably, the links aren't alive, anymore.

So what I'd need as a first part of the solution is an alternative download link for that driver (which apparently exists and works well with Linux).

Can anyone point me to a working download site?

Thanks!

gargamel

Ok, thanks, I tried that before and tried it again, and found that one of the sites that weren't reachable a couple of days ago, is up and working again. Probably some backbone problem solved now...

I even found versions for kernel 2.6, however, only up to 2.6.11. As for many kernel versions there are individual .tar.gz packages, I am unsure if I can use the 2.6.11 version with 2.6.13. What do you think or know?

Thanks again,

gargamel

I use to install it from source. The source code has scripts that automate the install process.

That being said I have not tried it with the 2.6 kernel series

This link has some hacked source code for the 2.6 kernel series.
hacked ltmdem driver

From the LTmodem 2.6 site
Edit: I noticed that the LTmodem 2.6 site has newer versions than I linked above.

Thanks! Yes, I read that text, before. However, it is still a bit unclear to me which version to choose for my kernel 2.6.13...

There are versions for 2.6.7 and 2.6.11 and others, but there's none for 2.6.13. Perhaps one of the others might work, but which one is preferred?

Thanks,

gargamel

Thanks for the link, very helpful, shepper!
I'll try it as soon as possible, and then report the result.

gargamel

As promised, here's my report:

I
- downloaded the source, shepperd had pointed me to,
- ran make in the directory that was contained in the archive file
- copied the *.ko files into a newly created directory /lib/modules/2.6.13/other
- loaded the module with #modprobe ltserial
- plugged the modem cable to my laptop
- created a softlink /dev/modem pointing to device file /dev/ttyLTMS0
- added the modem to my KPPP configuration
- dialed into my ISP

In short: SUCCESS without a single problem!

Thank you all, and shepperd in particular!

gargamel

Hello,

Do you mind telling us the exact name of the ltmodem source file you downloaded for your 2.6.13 system ?

Thanks.

Of course.

http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pack...alk-7b1.tar.gz

I just switched back to Slack from Ubuntu, and this is from the Lucent winmodem ltmodem 2.6.12-9-386 solved! thread on the Ubuntu forums. Their recommendation happens to be dead on.

I know why you're asking; I can't get some of the newer ltmodem versions to work either. This one definitely works though.

I, too, had success with ltmodem-2.6-alk-7b1.tar.gz, which contains a directory ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c.

gargamel

Thanks to dugan and gargamel for the advice.

I tried installing ltmodem-2.6-alk-7b1.tar.gz and followed the instructions present on the ubuntu post, but keep on getting the same error when trying to load the ltserial module:

/sbin/modprobe ltserial
FATAL: Error inserting ltserial (/lib/modules/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4/kernel/drivers/misc/ltserial.ko): No such device

(btw, my 'make' of the ltmodem package always produces the same warning:

make
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4-i686'
CC [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/lt_modem.o
CC [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/serial.o
/home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/serial.c: In function ‘lt_get_mctrl’:
/home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/serial.c:387: warning: unused variable ‘flags’
LD [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltmodem.o
LD [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltserial.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
Warning: could not find /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/.ltmdmobj.o.cmd for /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltmdmobj.o
CC /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltmodem.mod.o
LD [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltmodem.ko
CC /home/bbenny/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltserial.mod.o
LD [M] /home/dauser/Desktop/ltmodem-2.6-alk-7c/ltserial.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4-i686'

)


Any ideas on overcoming the '/sbin/modprobe ltserial' error? This error occurs irrespective of the ltmodem source file I use, and I've tried nearly every available ltmodem package.

It is usually a good bet on any *nix system that most problems are due to incorrect access rights.

Could it be that the file that appears to be missing cannot be found because it is owned by root, while you are running make as a regular user, or something like that? This can happen when you unpack an archive file as root.

Check file mode and ownership.

gargamel