Resolved Agere LT Winmodems/Stratitec IC56A Mepis 6.5 32bit

I'd like to see how you did it.

Burdicda, I would give my left...foot...and my first male child to hear how you did this. In our looooong discussion of getting these modems to work, some people report success. But so far it's been hit and miss. What works for one doesn't always work for all. Still, you've got to give the exact details so that we can document what's been tried, and to see whether you actually found the universal solution.

--Malanrich

Here Go's

How to get a Lucent (agere now) LT Winmodem working in Mepis 6.5-32

The modem is known by many names
Lucent LT Winmodem
Lucent Winmodem
agere 1648C-tv5
Stratitec IC56A at Walmart for around $28

1.Install Mepis 6.5-32
2.Install MC (midnite commander)
3.Install linux-headers 2.6.15-27-desktop
4.Install current full tar.gz of martian
http://www.barrelsoutofbond.org/downloads/martian/
5.Unpack martian somewhere you can work on it
/home/user/martian or similar
6.As root go into the subdir where martian is located
and run the following:
make all
make install
then go into the subdir called scripts and run
./automate.sh
./remove_outdated.sh
7.Now you can delete martian it's installed
8.Edit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
DISABLED_MODULES=”” to say
DISABLED_MODULES=”ltm” this kills the nonworking ltmodem
9.Edit /etc/init.d/martian
DEVICE=”/dev/ttySM0” to say
DEVICE=”/dev/modem”
10.Now as root enter
update-rc.d martian defaults

Your done
burdicda

Now by default I found the eth0, eth1 wireless, and
wlan0 all had entries in ifconfig that distracted
ppp0 from finding dns servers...so
just tell the modem to hangup or before you dial out
as root type ifconfig
and look to see if anything else is running
and for each one type ifconfig ethxxx down
or ifconfig wlan0 down and kill them all
except lo
then dial out with your now working modem and
zoom zoom zoom ....we having fun yet ??? LOL

Just want to show appreciation for all the troubleshooting that must have gone into this recipe. I'll slowly work through the steps and post the results. But it may take some time.

[I've been hoping for a configuration solution I could test out during a live session of "Mepis 6.whatever" so that I wouldn't have to disturb my current sweet setup of MepisLite]

--Malanrich

MepisLite 3.3.1-1 works perfectly with this modem already
even live.....

If you are running this lite version and it doesnt work
let me know and Ill work with you to get it working...

burdicda

Ditto here. This has been the complaint all along, that the Lucent modems worked great with every version of Mepis until 6.0. So I set up one machine with 6.0 and a serial modem (works fine), but rather than buy new modems for my two other machines, I just run MepisLite. Those internal modems work fine until I try anthing after Mepis 3.4.

So I'm hoping I can check into your solution to see that my internal modems could actually work with 6.0 or later.

--Malanrich

That's why I went to the trouble
I got so upset that they no longer worked
I almost got bounced outta the forums for complaining
so instead spent four days locked in my lab
reading and banging away on two identical machines
running lite and 6.5 -32
Couldnt get -64 working with everything ....so I stopped at 32

burdicda

Many thanks burdicda, I followed your instructions to the letter and my internal Agere now works with Mepis 6.5 32 bit. I have Mepis installed dual-boot with win98SE on my old Toshiba Satellite 1730. It only can use a max of 192 megs of memory and I didn't want to try to install xp or vista. So, I have graduated to Mepis Linux. Thanks very much for the ltwinmodem Agere instructions. I am however, worried that a future Mepis/Kernel update will undo the fix.
Thanks,
JFK

I'm going to bookmark this one. lol

But, FWIW, I've got a friend's PC (500mhz PIII with 192MB of RAM) that I installed SimplyMEPIS on with this modem, and it's working just fine without all of that stuff, using the ltmodem driver included if memory serves.

It works with both SimplyMEPIS 6.0 Final and some of the earelier 6.0-4 betas. I did not try it with 6.5 (and I ended up leaving 6.0 Final on that PC).

His original modem did not work. So, I ended up stealing modems out of other PCs sitting around until I found one that did work (a Lucent Agere modem). Super.

But, if I ever upgrade his PC to 6.5, this thread might come in handy. lol

Jim C.

Jim,

References to the ltmodem driver pop up here and there, but just for the record could you explain how one accesses that driver?

I've been working on the driver problem for months, but I experiment only with "live" sessions of 6.0+ (since I don't want to trash my working set-up). But if this thread shows good evidence for a couple of proven ways of licking the problem with installing software, I'll go ahead and install 6.0 or 6.5.

I didn't need to do a thing wth drivers. I just used KPPP (a.k.a., Internet Dialup Tool) and kept checking under it's Config until I found a modem that worked with it.

You can click on "My Modem", Edit and Query the Modem using it.

I'm not at the PC it's working with (it's a friend's PC on the otehr side of town), and I don't remember if it worked using the default device or a different one from the drop down list in it.

Your best bet would be to try it from a Live CD and see if it works with your modem or not.

I don't normally use this tool. But, his only connection was dialup and the only modem I found that worked with SimplyMEPIS 6.0 (that I have in any of my PCs) used the Agere Chipset. So, I put that modem in his PC. lol

Jim C.

Trying "query modem" with all the available devices has produced a big zero every time. It shows that not all Agere modems are alike. But this one is bizarre: it works fine with all Mepises up to 6.0. And 6.0 can find it but not stay connected. Then 6.5 can't find it at all (worser and worser!).

It seems I'd read somewhere that the ltmodem driver was in the repositories somewhere. That's what I was trying to remember.

The only recourse seems to be installing 6.5 and then trying Burdicda's method. But I hate taking the chance that it might not work and then I've wiped an otherwise working set-up. Oh well, might as well gather my courage, hold my breath and jump in. (Urine trickling down the chair leg...)

Look at the modem itself and see if it say's agere or
lucent anywhere on it....it will be on the largest chips
let us know....

will walk ya thru it if necessary....

tnx

burdicda

** My computer and my friends computer are both still working
perfectly with the martian driver and our lucent (agere)
pci internal winmodems...