Linmodem Post Install Problems
A compilation of problems and solutions
Offered by Jacques
Goldberg
Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa, Israel
Check here for updates - http://phep2.technion.ac.il/goldberg/post-install.html
For the impatient:
-
login as root or become su.
-
execute wvdialconf
-
edit /etc/wvdial.conf. Uncomment lines made idle by ; . Replace username,
password and phone number by those supplied by your ISP (Internet Service
Provider). Add the line Stupid Mode = yes
-
open an additional window as root or su
-
in the second window enter tail -f /var/log/messages
-
return to first window and start wvdial
-
watch the second window. If you see two IP addresses at the bottom (such
as 111.222.33.444), you do not need me any more. Begin to work, in a new
window. You can clear the messages with CTRL-C and you do not need
it in future, nor the wvdialconf steps.
-
alternately, after starting wvdial you can know if your session
is ready with /sbin/ifconfig which if OK will show a pppd entry.
-
if your reached this place, it is time to start an application (telnet,
ftp, Web browser) and enjoy your modem.
-
to stop the session and hang up the phone line, as su say killall pppd
Troubleshooting:
-
tail command does not work (messages file not found): you have it elsewhere
or with some other name. Try find /usr -name messages and if not
found go read /etc/syslog.conf to find the full path of the general
log file. Newcomers: do not edit /etc/syslog.conf unless you know
exactly what you are doing (requires restarting syslogd).
-
have you studied Linmodem
Resources ?
-
wvdial or wvdialconf not found. Download e.g. from there
and, as su, rpm -i the rpm file just downloaded. Return to step
vwdialconf.
-
NO DIALTONE message: please check your IRQ's, wrong, or conflicting. Use
setserial -agv /dev/modem and cat /proc/interrupts, the latter
should not show the IRQ reported by the former.
-
Still NO DIALTONE: edit /etc/wvdial.conf. By default it shows place holders
or text for 3 Init strings (you can add more up to 7). Try to add ATH1
as last command in last non empty string. Return to step vwdial.
-
Still NO DIALTONE: add AT+GCI=xx in the Init string, where xx is your
HEXADECIMAL
country code found here.
Your modem may be trying to listen to the wrong frequency.
-
Still NO DIALTONE: find a cable known to work with an other modem
and your phone line outlet, and try again (your cable may fail to match
the phone company wiring - especially in Switzerland for example if the
modem comes from elsewhere. Check that you have the right adaptor).
-
wvdial sends ATZ, modem does not reply OK: installation failed. Reexamine
all installation logs.
-
wvdial waits for carrier, number is dialed, nothing else appears on the
wvdial screen: wait for NO DIALTONE, NO ANSWER, BUSY, ...
-
have really waited? Hit CTRL-C to kill wvdial and verify your phone
connection and the number to be dialed. Do not forget prefixes such as
9 to get an external phone line from your exchange, and the like.
-
modem has connected but ppp does not start. Look at the ppp log for the
reason. Have you forgotten to add Stupid Mode = yes in your wvdial.conf?
-
failed to authenticate? verify that there is no matching entry in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets.
If you see your username and password in that file, comment the line with
a leading # and retry. Warning: wvdial version 1.40 creates the
line again, so use a more recent version. Note: some ISP servers
use a copyrighted encryption algorithm for chap authentication, not supported
by Linux pppd (at this time, at least).
-
LCP / connection timed out: same as previous item. For more details on
both, thoroughly study
what
does ISP want and learn about SPAP/CHAP/PAP to understand why it is
so important not to have a valid entry in file chap-secrets, in order to
avoid chap/spap encrypting problems.
-
nothing helped: start minicom, set up the /dev/modem port to some reasonable
baud rate, and 8N1 parity/lenth/stop bits. Try to dial the number with
ATDT. If the other side answers, and nothing appears on you screen, try
to hist ENTER a few times: some ISP's wait for it before prompting for
the username. But some ISP's sleep until YOU start pppd (this is why you
should remember
Stupid Mode = yes )
-
command AT&V will display all your modem settings. Report to us with
this listing if nothing works, such as even does not dial.
-
+++ resets the modem to command mode.
-
(CTRL-A) Z X (not CTRL-A CTRL-Z etc...) make minicom exit
-
CTRL-C will always kill minicom, even if seems stuck.
-
see this
link for a very comprehensive listing of modem commands (not all exist
in all modems).
Help others too: report problems and solutions!
When asking for help, specify distribution, kernel, modem, driver, driver
release, and include the wvdial log, and the ppp log found in /var/log/messages
(cut away messages before and after the failing session)
Author:Jacques Goldberg
Created: 8 May 2001
Last update: 8 May 2001