First things first, please don't tell me I have a "winmodem" or
something like that without reading the whole message. Also, sorry for
the length of the message, but I've had this problem for a while and I
really need it fixed or Linux on my system will be completely useless.
The two best methods I have for getting new packages and such to my box
are out of commission and I can't read email or otherwise communicate
with other netizens from my Linux install. Also, since this machine was
also acting as a gateway for my other box... but enough whining.
Basically, I get nothing when I try to use minicom to talk to the
modem. I try "at" and I get no "ok" or anything else for that matter.
I'm pretty sure I'm talking to the right serial port. Regardless, I've
tried ttyS0-4 and since I only really have one.... Also, KPPP just
tells me that the "modem is busy". The other problem is that when I try
to 'modprobe ppa' to get my Zip drive working I get a "device or
resource busy" error.
As far as I can tell, setserial reports the right settings for the
serial port for the modem and the 'modprobe ppa' in RH 5.2 at least,
reports searching the right addresses for where the device should be.
(I'm getting my ideas for what "right" is by looking at what Win '95
reports for the devices.)
Both devices still work in Win '95. I've had RH 5.0 and 5.2 installed
on this machine without seeing these problems. It first cropped up when
I tried to install Mandrake 6.0 just to check it out. I then tried RH
6.0 and got the same problem. I figured it was just a 6.0 (or maybe a
kernel 2.2) based thing so I tried re-installing RH 5.2. Well, the
problem is still there.
I'm completely clueless at this point as to what could have changed in
between having a working RH 5.2 system and now not being able to get RH
5.2 to work. (I.E. no new hardware since 5.2 was working.) I find it
hard to believe that installing Mandrake 6.0 could have actually
*caused* this.
BTW, each Linux OS install was from scratch -- that is, ext2fs
partitions on hdb and the swap on hda were ditched and then re-created
each time. That is one reason for the hda ext2fs partition. It holds
/home and /etc data and such that I need. I usually mount it as /backup
or something similar.
Any ideas? Here's all the additional information I can think to give
out:
Dell Dimension PC
300 MHz PII
On-board Yamaha OPLSA3 sound (overridden)
One serial port
Add-on boards
Creative Graphics Blaster Riva TNT AGP
Sound Blaster AWE 64
Linksys EtherLink 10-baseT PCI card (NE2000 PCI-compatible)
Internal devices
Default (not sure of brand) 6.4Gb Hard drive (hda)
Western Digital 8Gb hard drive (hdb)
3.5" floppy drive
Sony ATAPI Cd-Rom drive
HP 8110i CD-RW drive
External devices
MS Intellimouse
MS Natural Keyboard
**Parallel Port ZIP drive (old, needs ppa, not imm)
**Zoom 56K modem
OSs
Win '95 -- On two hda partitions and one partition on hdb
RH 5.2 or 6.0 or Mandrake 6.0 -- On hdb in several partitions and
the swap and one extra partition (not usually mounted) on hda.
** These two are the only things that don't work. Even the X Server
works (although I have to upgrade in RH 5.2 to get a Riva TNT-compatible
SVGA server).
~Mike
