name a modem that works with Mepis

I have used two that were picked up and required no configuration. One was a USR that hto hit by lightning, so I don't know the model number, but I'd bet that any USR external will configure just he same.

But, the best thing I found was only $18 !!! Can't remember where I bought if, but I found it on Pricewatch, just by loking at the caepest externals. BTW, I supose you've found that most internal modems aren't really complete modems and Linux works not at all, or or only wiht difficulty. Here is the name of the cheapie that really works well.
CenDyne. Heck, it doen'st have model numbr; it's just some Asian cheapie that someone imported with a silly techie name

Good luck/Don

Slogan: "LABOR SVGIT"

I will check those out.
Yes, I have found that the internal are crap. When I found myself trying to build a kernel under superuser, I woke up and realized that I didn't belong there. All that for a $15 modem--three days of screwing around and getting help on forums. It is enought to send me back to Microsoft. Gag.
Thanks
Ron

I second the Cendyne comment. I picked one up fro 25 at a local shop and had no problems. Make sure that the external you get is serial not usb. I think most usb types are still winmodamns. I also have had some luck with modems with lucent chipsets. I think there are Linux drivers available.

I have had the same problem, and upon inquiring was told to get an external modem that connects through the serial port. I was referred to pricewatch.com where there are a number of them for $10-$25. I ended up buying a Best Data for $16 with free shipping from gearxs.com. It should arrive within the next couple of days, and I can let you know how it works.

I just tried one of these external modems with Damn Small Linux and it worked perfectly. I haven't tried Mepis but am sure it would be no problem. I got it for $16 on Pricewatch.

I am waiting for Mepis 3.3 right now to try that system

Woah, hold up there! You're having TROUBLE? What kind of modems they got in your neck of the woods? Seriously, anything with a Lucent (or Agere as they are now called I believe) chipset should be fine. D-Link, Dynalink and Netcomm all stock internal v .92 winmodems with this chipset so just go find one for about $10!! You don't need an external modem. ESS and Rockwell chipsets also have drivers that work, but unfortunately anything using Conexant will cost you $15 to purchase drivers from Linuxant (grrr...).

http://www.apache4u.com/ezStore123/DTProductZoom.asp?productID=305

I use nothing but these apache's night and day on dozens and dozens of
Linux boxes...

I have the Intel 536ep.
Honestly, I do not know it if the modem is the problem or not. I have Simply Mepis 2004, but have ordered 3.3-hope it will be here this week.
My problem is that I am told I have to download a driver. No problem. Except, I have to somehow get the source headers up. Now why there are no source headers loaded since the drivers need them, I don't know. I would even do it if I could advice on how to do it in Mepis, not some other distro.
No, not advice that says put your cd in and get them. Gee, that is just not helpful. I have looked, I see what might be them, but they say they are installed. I am fed up with it.
I hope that 3.3 can recognize my modem, but if not, I plan to get an external one, one that someone can say does not need a bleeping driver.

FYI- My external modem just arrived today. I purchased a Best Data 56K V.92 Data/Fax Ext Serial Modem (56SX-92) for $16 from gearsx.com. Without rebooting or anything, KPPP recognized the modem and I was able to dial into my ISP. Initially it was only able to connect at 9600 even though the connection speed was set at 460800 in KPPP. After visiting the Best Data web site and checking out the KPPP help manual I tried setting the connection speed to 57600. That solved my problems and I have been happily surfing the net for the last hour. I hope this helps you or anyone else looking for a modem that works with SimplyMEPIS 3.3. The $16 was well worth it to avoid the frustration of trying to install a driver in an OS that is totally foreign to me.

-C

Check the Hardware DB.
Yes it's not complete, and yes no one can guarantee that's going to work for you what worked for someone else, but that's a good chance it would: http://mepislovers.com/hwdatabase/?page=list&orderby=deviceType&offset=50

--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

Thanks for the advice, but the web site doesn't work for me, seems to be a referral place, very general. ??
I'll look up the modem elsewhere
Thanks,
Ron

I do appreciate the site reference.
The one thing that I do not understand is the complexity. If another person has Mepis 3.3 and a certain modem worked, why would it not work on mine?
How much money do I have to spend testing stuff out?
The book Simply Mepis pisses me off. It is great if your hardware is accepted, it is worthless otherwise.
The concept of Linux taking over the world is a joke until those who parrot the phrase get real about the complexity that is beyond the average MS user. They will not spend the time or energy to become a geek.

It's NOT gearsx it's http://www.GEARXS.com ...

.bh.

The Best Data 56SX-92 works fine with Mepis or just about any other flavor of Linux. While I'm currently using DSL, I keep that modem around for emergencies. I've used it with Mepis, Slackware, Debian, SuSE, and Gentoo without any problems at all in any of them.

Mason M
Registered Linux User # 382617

Linux: because a PC is a terrible thing to waste.

Guess my eyes are crossed. sx or xs. Well, I did actually find the site. Thanks for the info!
Ron

I use a usr courier v-everything.Hooks right up,no problems at all.The best modem ever made in my opinion.

I'm with you, Ron. I'm now on my third modem -- also an Intel 536ep -- and it also won't work no matter what I do with MEPIS. I posted my problems here three days ago and haven't had a single reply about it. And why shouldn't we be angry?: Miller's "Point and Click" book (despite its virtues and those of SimplyMEPIS otherwise) glosses over this modem problem entirely -- and it has to be the single greatest obstacle there is to people adopting Linux! The standard Linux answer: "If it doesn't work at first, go here or here or here and post a question and wait for the community to respond," just doesn't cut it when your MODEM WON'T DIAL. And the Linux community thinks everyone ELSE is clueless!

Look, you can't tell people it's simple, then just cross your fingers and hope it works out that way! To put it differently, you can't lure people in with the promise of a GUI-driven interface that looks more-or-less familiar on the surface, but is TOTALLY ALIEN underneath. When things go wrong, you likewise can't expect them to make the mental and CULTURAL leap into command-line operations, kernel re-builds (whatever that means), and so on. It completely fried me, for instance, when I came across the line in a README file that blithely said, "Make the usual changes to makefile." Oh yeah! That's high-order GEEKDOM, and it can cause whiplash in someone who was looking for a point-and-click solution. How can it surprise anyone when that sort of treatment pisses people off?

I have a LOT of hopes to hang on Linux and on the open-systems movement. With SimplyMEPIS, I can see that it has come a LONG way since I tried and failed to migrate to RedHat two years ago. But here I am, still writing to you now from my Windows partition. Maybe in another two years....

--Jim

I understand your frustration but I think there is still hope ahead on the way.
Just because a modem doesn't work doesn't mean the end of the world. Some people address those devices as modems when they are not really modems but electro-acoustic couplers instead, aimed to work almost exclusively with MS.
To make things simple, with a few bucks I bought an external modem (a real modem) and I spent just five minutes of my life to make it work. Why don't you try ?

Don't waste your time and energy, try Linux with a modem that works. I'm sure you will change your mind.

Going back to MS will get you in a jail spending most of your time being afraid of viruses, spywares, malwares and other kind of wastes.

Have fun, try Linux

Alberto

How am I supposed to attach an external modem to my box? As my post at ../node/6022 describes, I do NOT have an unoccupied serial port. --Jim

Hi,

I see, you do not have any available serial port.
What are you using them for ?

Is there any chance to move something to another location/port/slot ?

Alberto

I was delighted to see that SimplyMEPIS recognized my Palm cradle and even had software that would successfully synchronize with it. That's what's on my serial port. What I do have available are PCI card slots. --Jim

my internal modem is working great with slmodem.

Your computer has just one or two serial ports ?

Alberto

Yeah, I think so. Look, I really can't accept that MEPIS cannot work with a PCI-card modem. Here's my still-unanswered post from nearly four days ago: --Jim

I need help badly. I got SimplyMEPIS up and running on a partition on my HP 8380 Pavilion system, dual-booting through GRUB 1.5 with Windows98SE on a separate partition three or four weeks ago. That was cool, as was the fact that I could not only see most of my data on the Win98 partitition from Linux, but use it from there. It was cool to have Linux that recognized my USB ports and devices. It was also cool to have so many great applications, applets, and utilities already in place, and to be able to install new applications successfully about 50% of the time.

Without Internet access, however, Linux can never be anything but a toy. I have gone through three modems now, all of which Win98SE could see and use, but SimplyMEPIS cannot. Okay, two fast and firm points:

1. NO, they were not Winmodems, unless the retailers who sold them to me LIED TO MY FACE, which is a possiblity.

2. NO, I don't have a serial port to spare, so please don't start in on me about getting an external modem. What I DO have are open PCI card slots, okay?

I replaced the as-supplied Winmodem in this machine years ago when I tried and failed to switch to RedHat. I put in a USR5610B, which Win98SE insisted upon installing at COM5 and no other. Once I saw that SimplyMEPIS would not recognize the USR modem, I tried a USB modem. Ha! I was able to return that one for a refund.

Now after too many attempts to make Linux see the USR modem, I've pulled it and put in an Intel 536ep. After at least half a dozen attempts with that, I'm stymied again, and about ready to pop. I downloaded the supposed drivers from Intel (as recommended elsewhere on this site) and followed Intel's directions. Here is the result:

root@1[tmp0]# ls
intel-536EP-2.56.76.1 intel-536ep-4.69.1.tgz
root@1[tmp0]# ls -la
total 472
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2005-04-11 13:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 47 jim users 4096 2005-04-11 13:47 ..
drwx------ 3 544 401 4096 2004-10-15 02:42 intel-536EP-2.56.76.1
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 463309 2005-04-11 13:23 intel-536ep-4.69.1.tgz
root@1[tmp0]# cd intel-536EP-2.56.76.1
root@1[intel-536EP-2.56.76.1]# make clean
cd coredrv; make clean
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/jim/tmp0/intel-536EP-2.56.76.1/coredrv'
rm -f *.ko *.o *~ core
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/jim/tmp0/intel-536EP-2.56.76.1/coredrv'
rm -f *.o *.ko
root@1[intel-536EP-2.56.76.1]# make 536
Module precompile check
Current running kernel is: 2.6.7
/lib/modules... autoconf.h does not exist
please install kernel source
make: *** [check] Error 1
root@1[intel-536EP-2.56.76.1]# make install
rm -f /etc/hamregistry.bin
bash Intel536_inst
running kernel 2.6.7
installing hamregistry, used for persistant storage
installing Intel536 driver
install: cannot stat `Intel536.ko': No such file or directory
make: *** [install] Error 1
root@1[intel-536EP-2.56.76.1]#

Please, please, please someone tell me what to do next! This is too hard! --JimV

Hi,

watching some compilation erros I found one of them stating:

please install kernel source

this is because there is a missing file needed to complete the job.
When you later try to make install the result, nothing is done due to previous errors.

To install the kernel source (several megs) you need at least a temporary connection to internet. Is there any way to carry out this job using the ethernet device ?

I'm not sure but perhaps you also need to install the kernel-headers and the kernel-tree, perhaps somebody else can help you with this.
If the kernel source is a tar.gz file left in /usr/src, you will have to uncompress it in that place.

Now that I have seen some errors you have a good reason making the modem not work and the best of it is that the error can be fixed.

Regards,

Alberto

I hope you are right, Alberto, and thanks for looking at my stuff. I'm not really sure how to proceed, but let me sleep on it and come at this again. --Jim

Just for your information, you are not the only person in this world wuth a similar problem.
Surfing the internet I found a very similar problem in the following link:
http://mandrakeusers.org/lofiversion/index.php/t22663.html

I also tried to compile the soft in my PC even though I do not have this modem and I foud it impossible. As far as I could see (I'm going to sleep right now) the configuration scripts are looking for the file autoconf.h exactly where the file is not located !
The file is in /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.x.x/include/linux

This may be a matter of links.
I'll investigate further.

Regards,

Alberto

Hi,

For hard to explain reasons I use kernel 2.4.29 in my PC, perhaps you use 2.6, then follow my directions changing the 2.4.29 for your kernel version, probably 2.6.10 or something like that. You can see the kernel version with the command: uname -r

You first have to have the kernel-headers for your kernel installed. Later, as user root you have to create a link:

ln -s /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.29 /usr/src/linux-2.4.29

Now try to compile the modem soft and surely it will work. At least, I could compile it in my PC, I don't have the modem.

Good luck.

Alberto

Okay, but what is a "kernel-header," where do I get one (feed store? ), and what do I have to do to install it? Yes, I'm on 2.6.7. It came with the Robin Miller book. --Jim