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 More on modems August 12, 2005 4:35 AM

That last thread was getting rather long - and sorry, Sundara, there's still no conclusion! But I feel it's such an important issue that I'm making it a personal project.

Just to recap: most dial-up modems are not supported in kernel 2.6. That's a conditional statement, as (a) some folk have successfully installed them and (b) there are drivers available for many of the chipsets, but not for free and definitely not open source.

Thought I'd kick off this thread with a comment I found on a Mepis forum:

The problem is, in a work environment you don't always have the authority to change a modem. As a home/hobby user, sure, change the modem and live happily.

I've worked many places where Linux is tolerated, but hardware is strictly hands-off.

Stick with the 2.4 kernel or get a "supported" modem.

BTW, in my opinion the 2.6 error message you get should read: lt_modem: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel developer politics, load denied

I have yet to see a cogent argument whereby alienating end users by denying "proprietary" devices will benefit the Linux community. We don't all have the luxury of changing our hardware to suit the OS.

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 August 12, 2005 4:45 AM

This is one of the reasons why many distros are still based on kernel 2.4, and many users (including total techies) prefer them. (For those more used to Windoze than GNU/Linux, it's like sticking with Windows 98 because your gadgets don't work in XP.) I'm refurbishing a computer this weekend, which gives me an opportunity to assess some of these distros.

The ones I'm looking at first are Vector, Mepis and Puppy (based on Slackware, Debian and Red Hat respectively.) I'll report back, with recommendations, once I've got everything up and running.



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 August 12, 2005 7:47 AM

Most work areas have ethernet, and I dont see Linux un-supporting that !! 

It is discouraging that the Kernel folks are doing that kind of thing.  There is nothing in the free and open software manifesto that commercial software is verboten, freedom is something to strive for but never attain (Bob Marley and Haile Selassie)  [ send green star]
 
 August 12, 2005 8:09 AM

> Most work areas have ethernet, and I dont see Linux un-supporting that !!

Even if that were true, if your only internet access at work is via dial-up you don't have much choice. Besides, the point is that we shouldn't have to change our hardware.

Please note also that even at home, not everyone can or wants to sign up for ADSL. And it's a good idea to have dial-up access as a back-up. For heaps of reasons, ethernet is not a cure-all.

> It is discouraging that the Kernel folks are doing that kind of thing.

I doubt that they realised what a hassle it would be. This only really seems to affect USB and software modems; most other drivers have been updated or work with 2.6 anyway, no problem.

> There is nothing in the free and open software manifesto that commercial software is verboten

Commercial, OK. But if we could access the source code, we might be able to fix something like this and share the solution - for free.





'Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.' Alice Walker.

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And the winners are ... August 28, 2005 12:58 PM

It's taken me a while to sift through all the different distros and configurations, especially as I've only really been able to focus on this at weekends. But I can happily announce my recommendations for newcomers to Linux with dial-up modems!

Winner of the Kernel 2.6.x category: Mandriva Limited Edition 2005, which is what I usually use anyway, Before you start downloading it, though, please bear in mind that it's a full-size distro, 3 CDs' worth - so unless you can "borrow" someone's broadband, you might be better off buying it. (Alternatively, contact your local Linux User Group and find out if any of its members are running Mandriva. They'd probably be only too delighted to burn you a copy.)

Winner of the Kernel 2.4.x category: Vector SOHO 5.0. I think this is actually the most impressive distro I've seen so far! It only weighs about 650MB but includes an impressive range of software, installs as happily on an old machine as a new one, and is up and running in practically no time!

Winner of the Junk Geek category: hands down, Blueflops. You'd have to be insane to want to run a graphical browser on a 386 with 8MB RAM and no hard disk to speak of, but now you can! And it features a 2.6.12 kernel on 2 floppies. This is not recommended for newbies so I shouldn't really have mentioned it here. But I couldn't resist saying that it's not big, but it is clever!

In short - for those just looking for something quick and easy to use - you can click here to download Vector. I can't guarantee that it'll work for you, as nothing's guaranteed in this game - but it's definitely worth first try. And I can promise to support you with it, as I'm going to keep it installed on one of my PCs.

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 August 28, 2005 1:16 PM

You'll also need the winmodem drivers. Most winmodems seem to be Conexant, but some use SmartLink drivers or Lucent. So first, find out what chipsets your modem uses with scanModem (download here).

Right-click on the downloaded file, and "extract to ..." somewhere you can easily find it again. It should give you a file called scanModem; right-click on this, choose Properties, go to Permissions and check the executable box then 'OK'.

Double-click on scanModem. A folder called Modem should appear, containing a file called ModemData.txt (among others). Copy and paste that file here, and I'll tell you what to download next and what to do with it.

Hope that's clear enough. I'll go into more details as and when required, so feel free to ask questions. Meanwhile, I'm off to play with Blueflops! (I'll make an appointment with my psychiatrist tomorrow morning.)  [ send green star]  [ accepted] 		(Member Is Blocked)
 
 August 28, 2005 7:25 PM

Fantastic work !!

So you got Conexant to work under a 2.6 kernel, great.  That blueflops looks good too, that is relevant for poorer nations.  They have no shortage of kids w/ talent, but they dont have machines.. and the controlling elite wont let us give them our cast off machines.. they say we are using Africa as a dumping ground

Is that true ?? 2.6 && Winmodem ??


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 August 29, 2005 1:00 AM

I still couldn't get the winmodems to work with a lot of the 2.6 distros, at least not without more fiddling than I was prepared to do (and therefore, would not recommend). Debian is especially tricky; distros based on Red Hat/Mandrake or Slackware are more straightforward.

The dumping issue is one that merits a thread in its own right, although I've been saving it for a "proper" site (where we can control what goes where and how long it stays there). Now that I can put the modem issue aside for a bit, I might get a chance to focus on it properly.
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PS: Reasons to compile August 31, 2005 12:26 AM

This applies specifically to Linuxant, but is worth bearing in mind for other Open Source drivers:

1. Linuxant offers several pre-compiled drivers for different distros. It's less confusing - not to mention quicker - to download just one file.

2. I couldn't get the pre-compiled ones to work, on any of the 2.6 kernel distros I tried. So I ended up using the source (the "tar.gz" download) anyway.

And here's an interesting one:

3. OK, so you can download the latest pre-compiled drivers for free, but only connect at 14k unless you pay. However Linuxant does not (and, I've discovered, cannot) charge you for using the source (which it is required to supply) and compiling it yourself.

In other words - it's free after all! (I got top speed on mine, and it was faster than my usual dial-up.)

Compiling the drivers really isn't all that complicated - as long as it works. So please do let me know if you run into difficulties.  [ send green star]  [ accepted] 		(Member Is Blocked)
 
External Modem support? December 01, 2005 11:23 PM

I haven't had to install a modem in Linux in awhile (cable service since 2001) but I would assume that even kernel 2.6 could handle a serial, or possibly a USB, external modem? 

I've still got a few 56K serial modems lying around.  Perhaps I'll try one out with a new kernel.
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Serial modems March 07, 2006 3:35 PM

I'm running dial-up on a US Robotics, serial modem on MEPIS 3.3.1  which has 2.6 or 2.4 (your choice at boot-up)  kernel and it works just fine.
Hint: Do NOT use the lock-file when setting the modem.
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