Mepis 3.4 live CD doesn't recognize ttys0 external modem

bilzer, are you looking for ttys0 (lowercase) or ttyS0 (uppercase)?

Jon

Thanks for replying.
That's a good point - my query to this site incorrectly entered lower case -
ttyS0 (upper case S) isn't listed in the dmesg when using the live 3.4 CD while it is there in the other cases listed above.
I search dmesg for tty or ttyS0 and search is not case-sensitive.

Well bilzer, I'm hoping some of the folks who have played with 3.4-1.rc1 etc. will have some ideas since I don't. There is another thread
http://www.mepis.org/node/8778

but there have been no responses to it yet. I'm wondering if your problem is a slight variation of it. Let's see if some other ideas come up and I'll try to think of something else too

Jon

I installed Mepis 3.4 on a vacant partition.
The result is the same.
I cannot get a ttyS0 or any connection to the external usrobotics modem that I am at this moment using with Mepis 3.3.1 and did with other distros.
Without that capability, this CD is of no use to me.
There must be a fix for this?

Rats bilzer, this is no fun

You may have to do this manually (till it's fixed by the dev crew). Also, send this info to

Here is a link to a previous thread that has instructions for using the "mknod" command:
serial ports not seen | MEPIS Support
http://www.mepis.org/node/5810#comment-18301

To create /dev/ttyS0 you will need to perform the following command as user root:
# mknod /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64

Jon

The message I get when trying to log on is:
Kppp cannot find /dev/ttyS0

This is from the partition using Mepis 3.4 with the problem:
root@1[mine]# ls -l /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root dialout 4, 64 2003-01-01 21:10 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS0
c--------- 1 root dialout 4, 65 2003-01-01 21:10 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS1
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 62, 79 2003-10-26 05:51 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS15
c--------- 1 root dialout 4, 66 2001-04-14 17:44 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS2
crw-rw-rw- 1 root dialout 4, 67 2001-04-14 17:44 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS3
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 4, 68 2003-12-05 14:02 /mnt/hda12/dev/ttyS4
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 4, 69 2003-12-05 14:04
etc etc etc

This is from partition with Mepis 3.3.1:
root@1[mine]# ls -l /dev/ttyS*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root dialout 4, 64 2006-01-13 07:59 /dev/ttyS0
c--------- 1 root dialout 4, 65 2003-01-01 21:10 /dev/ttyS1
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 62, 79 2003-10-26 05:51 /dev/ttyS15
c--------- 1 root dialout 4, 66 2001-04-14 17:44 /dev/ttyS2
crw-rw-rw- 1 root dialout 4, 67 2001-04-14 17:44 /dev/ttyS3
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 4, 68 2003-12-05 14:02 /dev/ttyS4
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 4, 69 2003-12-05 14:04 /dev/ttyS5
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 4, 70 2003-12-05 14:05 /dev/ttyS6
etc etc etc

Bilzer, can you post your /etc/fstab file? It appears that you do have ttyS0 but that it's on a different partition. Are you mounting /dev/hda12 to /mnt/hda12? Because if you are wanting /dev/hda12 to be your "root" partition, then it needs to be mounted to "/".

So I'm just confused. I don't understand why you're showing info from /mnt/hda12 unless it's just because you're currently running from 3.3.1 and /mnt/hda12 is where 3.4 is and it's not currently running

So check your /etc/fstab file in both versions of Mepis and see if there are any differences.

Jon

Sorry for the confusion.
I am now running from Mepis 3.3.1 which is entirely on hda14.
The Mepis 3.4.3 is entirely on hda12.
I ls'd both while running Mepis 3.3.1 to show that I can see no difference in the ttyS* files between the two releases of the distro.

Sorry I haven't read through all the posts yet but my problem sounds similar. When ever I boot the machine I don't have a /dev/ttyS0 so I go in and make one with makedev ttyS0. I then make sure it's in /dev folder. This works until I reboot the machine when once again the ttyS0 file goes away. Any thoughts.

UPDATE: For some reason it looks like /dev is mounted on a tmpfs file system. I couldn't find it in fstab but when you do a df command one of the mounted drives comes out to be "tmpfs 10M 2.5M 7.6M 25% /dev".
Sorry for the sloppy writting I'm in a hurry to get out the door.

First to bilzer: Are you only having the loss of ttyS0 on 3.4 of mepis or did you have this problem in 3.3.1 also (which I doubt)? If it's a 3.4 issue, have you sent this info to since I have seen other comments on the forum along this lines. It may be solved with the latest release candidate that was just announced. Do you want to try it? If the problem is happening in 3.3.1 then I'm really confused because I'm running 3.3.1-1 on a number of machines with no problem so I'll have to dig deeper to find the solution.

Next, to stancol (as well as bilzer): If I'm not mistaken Mepis does a dynamic check/create/configure of devices upon bootup. It got that from its pedigree to Knoppix. For that reason, just 'cause you create a device doesn't mean it will be there after (re)bootup

Perhaps some of the other monitors can chime in on this, but I will try to do a little searching to see if I can find anything else to help both of you. Dynamic reallocation of "stuff" is a good thing, until you get things set just how you like it

I'm sorry I can't be of more help. Please be patient

Jon

Couldn't get an internal usrobotics to respond no matter what

First I set the bios to force irq reserved for isa (old isa modem)
Second I used the commands
cd ..
cd dev
mknod ttyS1 c 4 65 to create a serial port device for my modem
which i forced to irq 3 serial port comm 2

Third went into kppp and set it up to use ttyS1 and then
queried modem...took a couple of seconds ...whew thought it failed

BAMMM ... works like a charm....

Im on the modem right now connected writing this message...

ciao...

tnx Jon

Anyone know where I could put that script
to mknod that will remain
permanent...

some system script that has space for user input routines ?

First burdicda, congratulations! I'm glad you got it to work. I didn't do nuthin'!

You can try this to set up a permanent solution. You will need to create a script, make it executable, and then make a "symbolic link" to actually run it.

1) Use the kate editor as user root. Enter the following:
alt+f2 (the Run command)
kdesu kate /etc/init.d/mktty # call it anything you want
You will be prompted for root's password
Wait a moment for kate to start up.
2) Enter the following commands into kate. I'm going to show the stuff formatted. Hopefully you can enter it the same way

#!/bin/sh
N=$0
case "$1" in
  start)
    /bin/mknod ttyS1 c 4 65
    ;;
  stop|reload|restart|force-reload)
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
esac
exit 0

Save the above.
3) Open a konsole, and "su" as user root (with root's password) and set permissions to executable.

$ su
Password: (enter root's password)
# cd /etc/init.d
# chmod u+x mktty   # this will make mktty executable

4) Make "symbolic links" to execute the script. Using the script /etc/init.d/makedev as a template, you can create the following links (as root)

ln -s ../init.d/mktty /etc/rc2.d/S25mktty
ln -s ../init.d/mktty /etc/rc3.d/S25mktty
ln -s ../init.d/mktty /etc/rc4.d/S25mktty
ln -s ../init.d/mktty /etc/rc5.d/S25mktty

You can try it the first time to be sure it works, again as root, by entering the following command in the konsole:

/etc/init.d/mktty start

Let me know if you need any further assistance and if the above is clear

Jon

Solved.
Warren had me lsmod and found 8250_pci was not autoloaded.
I did modprobe 8250_pci and that fixed ppp.
I added 8250_pci to /etc/modules to set for autoload and that works.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Glad you got it solved. Who is this "Warren" guy and why does he think he know everything?

Keep up the good work in the cubicles, er "trenches", Warren, et. al.

Jon

Just thought I'd FINALLY comment. My problem turned out to have something to do with everything in /dev being attached to what looked like an old RAM drive. Sorry can't remember everything exactly as it happened. My problem originated when I tried to install Mepis over the top of an older Linux Distro. The other Distro used seperate particians for several places such as /boot. When Mepis installed it connects /boot to /root so if I mounted /boot I'd get two different directories. At least that's how I remember it. I fixed the problem when the hard drive crashed and I simply reformed the complete new hard drive to remove ALL traces of old particians.