Modem won't work with 2.6.4 kernel in beta-03`

I have downloaded and installed to my harddrive MEPIS-2004.05-03. I have no problems with the 2.4.26 kernel version. However, I cannot get my ActionTek PM560LKI PCI modem to work with the 2.6.4 kernel. I also have the same exact problem with the 2.6 kernel in Knoppix 3.4.

This modem has worked with all previous releases of MEPIS as well as Red Hat 8.0, Xandros 2.0, Libranet 2.8, Mandrake 10.0 (2.6.3 kernel), Slackware 9.1, Knoppix 3.4 (2.4 kernel), PCLinuxOS, SuSE 9.0 and SLAX.

BTW, I am using KPPP to dial-up with. I have always had good luck using KPPP (once I learned how to use it).

I have had to type in the following commands on some of these disto's (including MEPIS) to get my modem to work:
cd /dev
./MAKEDEV ttyS4
ln -s ttyS4 modem
chmod 777 modem
chmod 777 ttyS4

I recently found the post in the MEPIS forum about adding the following lines to the /etc/modutils/modem file:
pre-install serial rm /dev/modem
post-install serial ln -s /dev/ttyS4 /dev/modem
This works great and I now no longer need the above mentioned commands to get the modem to work.

However, when I try to dial-up with the 2.6 kernel in MEPIS (same problem with the 2.6 kernel in Knoppix 3.4), I get a 'modem is busy' message. Even typing in the above commands does not help. Perhaps the key to this problem is that when in KPPP I click on "modem' and then 'query modem' all of the returned fields are blank rather than having 'AT' commands in them. IIRC, I think I had the same problem (blank fields) in previous versions of MEPIS.

I had no trouble using KPPP and dialing-up with Mandrake 10.0 and its 2.6.3 kernel. Only MEPIS 2004.05 and Knoppix 3.4.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

-Gene-