lucent/agere win modem woes

Hi bones113,

I've described exactly this same experience in several related threads. Same lucent/agere modem, same experience of having it work fine in all versions up to 6.0, same action of locating modem, dialing out, connecting, then hanging up with error notice of exit 16 (right?).

I've received good advice on adjusting the settings in various ways, but no configuration has worked (so far). I don't want to give up since (a) lucent modems are "supposed" to work, and (b) this one *almost* works, and (c) this one has worked great on all other Mepis versions.

To just shrug and buy a new modem would be such a ... surrender at this point. But I'm otherwise so happy with Mepis that I'll switch modems. I would, though, appreciate some technical insight into why stuff that used to work stops working in later versions of an OS. Maybe somebody can chime in here on that.

I have the same problem - the hardware is detected, query modem works ok, but when dialing, it dials ok, negotiates speeds ok, then dies waiting for 'CONNECT' - is this a problem with pppd?

I have a compaq evo laptop that has a built in lucent modem and I have mepis 6.0 installed and it works great.Go figure.Maybe it has something to do with changing from pure debian to an ubuntu base.I don know but it is frustrating.Mepis wont even pick up my external modem at all in fact no debian based distro will but the rpm based distros do.I cant figure out that one either.Mepis is a fine distro and with automatix it makes it even better.By the way I had a similar expereince with ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10.Wish I could figure it out.
Thanks for the reply"s

In the device tab, check the connection speed, it probably reads 460800. Lower it to 115200 and try connecting again.

The speed listed is the baud rate, (the digital side of the modem) not the connection speed, which is the analogue side of the modem, the bit that gives you 56k if you're lucky.

Most modems have a baud rate of 115200. Let us know how it went.

Mike P

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

Here's a total shot in the dark on modem connection:

Could it make any difference that my Lucent modem is conking out with an uninstalled boot of the Mepis 6.0 live disk? Might doing an install affect modem performance in any way? Anybody have thoughts on this?

Dev's get in such a big hurry to get out new stuff they just
run off and leave hardware behind....

And that was supposed to be "THE PRIME DIRECTIVE" in the first
place to use Linux...

Leave no one behind.....grandfathered forever.....

tell that to udev when it dumped my davicom network card...
the fix is....sorry ....buy another network card....LOL

or there's always "THE WINDOWS FIX"
that means for a small sum of money I just happen
to have a cow on the back of my truck mr douglas....

(Mr Haney from green acres tv show)
always a fix for money.....

like these binary drivers for win modems for a price...
wow ... like I have the cure for cancer for a mere
50 billion dollars....

pay up or die !!!!!

Mark, I'm not sure I understand your "shot in the dark"

Can you please clarify what you mean? Then I can take a shot in the dark back your way. (I hope we don't hit EnigmaOne by accident. Ya better duck pardner!)

Jon

Hey Jon,

Sorry for the garble. What I mean is that I'm trying to get my modem to work while running the Mepis 6.0 cd (and dvd) without actually installing 6.0 on that particular box. I'm wondering if running a "live" session might affect in any way the operation of the modem, general hardware detection, etc.

I recall some posts about differences in hardware performance when one boots into a live session vs. actually installing the OS. I doubt it affects the modem at all. But installing 6.0 on this particular box is about the only remaining "test" I can think of. I haven't wanted to do this since I have a nice installation of MepisLite running just fine. Advice?

Hi Mark. OK, I understand now. To distill it down to two questions:
1) Does modem work while running DVD/CD Mepis 6.0?
2) Does modem work while running INSTALLED Mepis 6.0?

If it works in one, but not the other, then we have a clue as to what might be wrong.

So, specific to your case, does your modem work with the DVD and/or INSTALLED (one, the other, or both)?

Next observation, to all on this thread. It appears that EXTERNAL modems do not work, but INTERNAL modems do (if I understand bones113 above). If so, that is interesting. Why? Because an external modem is connected to a serial port whereas an internal modem is a serial port. If the external modem does not work, then I would want to know how is it connected externally? In other words, is it a traditional "serial port" or a newer USB port? If so, that gives us another clue.

Sorry, I'm no good at SOLVING the problem, only sweeping up a bunch of clue-lint on the floor.

Jon

To answer:

1) Modem does not work while running DVD/CD of Mepis 6.
2) I don't know whether modem will work with installed Mepis 6 because I wanted to be sure it *would* work before obliterating my current installation.

If there is a chance the modem might work with installed Mepis 6 I'd be willing to go ahead and install it. If there is no chance that running the installed version would be different from running the DVD/CD, I'll just buy another modem or wait to see if the new LiteMepis works better. [Hence my original question]

About internal vs. external, I've heard various claims (external USB never works, but external serial port does; my internal Lucent/Agere worked on all other Mepis versions, etc.).

Try disabling APIC (or IOAPIC) in BIOS - the only problem is that if you dual boot with Windows XP, XP will SEEM to hang (it doesn't but all you'll get is a blank screen) - 1 step forward - 111 back.

Darlington13: Thanks for the tip. I will (cautiously) try this, but since I do dual boot won't this bork my XP? (or are you saying that the blank screen is only temporary??).

I hope anyone experimenting with these tips will report their results.

Here's another: Users of other distributions with the same modem problem recommend using wvdial with enabled Stupid Mode. Sounds interesting. But anyone know how to run wvdial when it doesn't come with Mepis 6.0 (I don't see it in the 6.0-1 resources), and I'm running 6.0 from the cd/dvd until I know the modem will work? (I can't "install" an application while running a live session, right?)

First of all I would like to encourage you to persevere because I have a thinkpad a20m with a lucent internal winmodem working from the live CD Mepis 6.0. It also worked on the earlier Mepis 3.4.3 For reference,

lspci reports the following:

Communication controller: Agere Systems WinModem 56k (rev 01)

I used kppp to connect. The modem list only has one listing (MyModem) or something like that. I took that default. The modem was responsive as described.

I set the bit rate lower to 56K (I only connect at 24K). I took all the other defaults. I did a copy paste from my att worldnet account.txt file in a win98 partition to set the user and password into kppp. (I have not typed it in by hand yet; though, I did in the previous 3.4.3)

My first attempt to connect failed due to a timeout while the CD was spinning up. (It almost connected)
The second attempt was sucessful.

Unfortunately, I can see nothing wrong with anything you are doing. Maybe it will work from a full install. Though I would have more confidence if it ran from your CD.

Unrelated to MEPIS, a few years ago I could not connect to my att worldnet account with Mandrake for a long time. I had to add a return to the end of the username, but not the password. I cannot remember if the copy paste procedure initially got the return in there for me. I have never had this return problem in MEPIS.

Other notes:

A small modem icon comes up on the right of the tool bar.
I have no idea how one is supposed to hang up the modem from this icon. I had to log in as root:
su
user root
password root
killall -HUP pppd

to hang up the modem. Maybe somebody knows how to do it from the icon, or KDE

Since my last post, I have seen the Lucent LT modem (with kppp) fail when running MEpis 6.0 from Live Disc in a "low memory machine", that is , 128K RAM. Some of the software appearantly does not load. Mepis 6.0 gives three choices on booting from CD, depending upon the age of your hardware. Older machines with less RAM should not use the "newer hardware" choice, if you want the Lucent LTmodem to work from CD. It worked for me with the 2nd choice, failed first choice. AS for a full install to hardisk, I have not had any problems with the LTmodem driven by kppp.

Ignore anything after "Other notes:" previous post. It is nonsense. Now that I have 6.0 experience, I know better. It works just fine.

Hey dcrunkilton, thanks for the follow up. To clarify:

(a) You're thinking that running a "live" session for "older hardware" allows Mepis to load software more completely (enabling kppp to detect LT modems).

(b) But a full install gets all the components in place, allowing modem detection. (Can't recall the install menu right now, but is there an option for "older hardware" installation? Did you choose anything like that, or did you go for the default install?)

(c) So my previous hypothesis was somewhat correct: full installs act differently from live sessions.

(d) As far as you know, does this go for 6.5 as well as 6.0?

(e) Does anything in "Burdicda's solution" affect what you're describing? See:

http://www.mepis.org/node/13612

I'll keep working on this. Your info helps a lot.

--Malanrich