Dial up modem with linux mandrake prob

I just got a new *ISA Sportster Voice 56k* modem, and ive been having some problems instaling it in mandrake, it is compatable with mandrake (i checked the aproved hardware list) and some wieird things have been happening.
when i bind a comm port to my modem, it changes the /dev/modem shortcut to ttys* and it will change the * to what ever comm port i bind it to, like comm port 1 is 0 =*, anyway so /dev/modem creates a shortcut to /dev/ttys6 (comm port 7 and it isint being used by any other device) and the ttys6 is a shortcut to /dev/tty/6 (<-- in my case) and in the /dev/tty dir there is only 3 driver files (0, 1, 2) and they are empty, and i checked harddrake and my modem is set up right (it displays the right name) so i guess i need the driver to that modem in my /dev/tty dir and name it 3, but i dont know how to get the driver for it. Also this ISA card has a PnP jumper setting and i have it jumpered to PnP, i also have the comm port jumpered to comm 7, so i dont know whats wrong, please help...


i have mandrake 8.1 if any of you want to know
and if you want to double check for me (heh) the aproved hardware list is http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3

thanks in advance

OK...... it's been a long time since I've messed with ISA modems and Linux, so my memory is a little rusty. And devfs came down the pike after I stopped using modems, so I'm not sure exactly how that affects things. But I'll give it a shot.

My first suggestion is to jumper it to turn off PnP. It just doesn't work so hot for ISA devices. I would much rather jumper an ISA device as the standard COM 2 / IRQ 3 and disable COM 2 in the BIOS. You should be using /dev/ttyS1. That way, you know exactly what you're dealing with. Eliminate one variable right off the bat.

Next, I would have a look at proc and see what it sees. cat /proc/tty/driver/serial should yield something like

serinfo:1.0 driver:5.05c revision:2001-07-08
0: uart:16550A port:3F8 irq:4 baud:9600 tx:0 rx:0
1: uart:16550A port:2F8 irq:3 baud:9600 tx:0 rx:0 CTS|DSR

Find your modem in the list and, if necessary, tweak things with setserial. man setserial should tell you all you need to know. Hope this helps.

well, why i am using com 7 for the jumpered settings is because im dualbooting with win2k so if i might have some irq conflicts, i supose i could change what ever is on comm 2 to comm 7, and i couldent get the modem to work in windows without PnP enabled so i thought id do it that way, but im welcome to more suggestions, and thanks alot problemchild

You should be able to set it up with isapnptools.

http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools/

I set up a pnp sound card once with it. Modems should
work too. What I would do is check what resources the
modem uses under windows, and assign the same
resources in linux. It won't conflict since only one OS
is running at a time. COM1 IRQ4 (/dev/ttys0) and
COM2 IRQ3 (/dev/ttys1) are the most common
traditional settings.
:cool:

ok i tryed both PnP and without PnP and these are the results i got:

with PnP:

is registered correctly in the hardware manager, and when i go to dial i get this error:

Sorry, modem doesn't respond.

and then i give the command cat /proc/tty/driver/serial i get:

serinfo:1.0 driver:4.27
0: uart:16550A port:3F8 irq:4 baud:9600 tx:3 rx:0
1: uart:16550A port:2F8 irq:3 baud:9600 tx:3 rx:0 <-- or sometimes i get tx:4 on this one

without PnP:
isint registered at all in hardware manager, and when i go to dial i get this error:

Sorry, modem is buzzy.

and when i give the command cat /proc/tty/driver/serial i get:

serinfo:1.0 driver:4.27
0: uart:16550A port:3F8 irq:4 baud:9600 tx:3 rx:0
1: uart:16550A port:2F8 irq:3 baud:9600 tx:0 rx:0

well, thanks for your replys in advance, it is really helpful!

It looks like serinfo is detecting your onboard serial controllers and not your modem. Have a look at /proc/ioports and /proc/interrupts to try and get the port address and IRQ that the modem is using. Then use setserial to set ttyS3 to that address and IRQ and link /dev/modem to /dev/ttyS3.

If that doesn't work, there is a utility called isapnptools that I'm told is very good with PnP modems, although I've never used it myself. You can get it from freshmeat.net and check the documentation for it.

Jumper the card to a real com1 (DOS) disable all com ports in the bios or set a real com 2 in the bios. Windows should have no problem nor will Linux.

Quote:

---

It looks like serinfo is detecting your onboard serial controllers and not your modem. Have a look at /proc/ioports and /proc/interrupts to try and get the port address and IRQ that the modem is using. Then use setserial to set ttyS3 to that address and IRQ and link /dev/modem to /dev/ttyS3.

If that doesn't work, there is a utility called isapnptools that I'm told is very good with PnP modems, although I've never used it myself. You can get it from freshmeat.net and check the documentation for it.

---

i looked at those two files and they have nothing in them to do with my modem, and i cant access the net on that comp, so if anybody could tell me how to mount a NTSF partition in mandrake. im really new with linux so i don't know much about it

thanks in advanced

mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

Assuming your Windows partition is the first one on the drive. Just be sure that the mount point (/mnt/windows) exists. NTFS support must be enabled in the kernel, but I believe the stock Mandrake kernel already has it compiled as a module. NTFS access will be read-only, though.

I only found one approved USR modem on the Mandrake 8.1 Hardware list, model 5630B.

Here is what US Robotics says about the only ISA modem (model 005687-03) I found on their page.

"Modem is compatible with Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 95."

IOW, "Winmodem", and basically means the modem requires drivers written for it. Modems are the biggest PitA problem I've ever had with Linux. Once I learned that an external modem connected to a serial port works first time, every time, I had no more problems. The vast majority of internal modems made today will not work with Linux, which is in part, a good thing, because it forces you to buy decent hardware modems.

What is the model number of your modem and what did USR say were minimum requirements on the box?

well i got the modem on ebay so i diddent get a box or any documentation, an external modem sounds like a good choice, and my modem has a different model code so i guess im SOL thanks for the help everybody