No need to apologize; this is a common topic on the list. The short answer
is that I think your only real mistake is trying to connect to both serial
ports at the same time. The long answer follows.
First, make sure that your serial ports really are enabled. Make sure the
BIOS page that shows up at boottime lists 3 serial ports (2 for the actual
serial ports, one for the internal modem). If not, your motherboard has one
or more serial ports disabled, and you'll need to enable them. Not a Linux
issue in this case - read the motherboard docs for the answer.
Second, regardless of where you've been trying to attach the external modem,
you want it on /dev/ttyS0 . S1 and S3 share an interrupt, and you don't want
the added complication of dealing with that.
Third, the best app to use to look for a modem is minicom. It uses the
symlink /dev/modem, so set that up with the line "ln -s /dev/ttyS0
/dev/modem". Then using minicom, try to send an AT sequence to your modem
(any you know will do; AT&V (view active configuration) is a safe one to
try). Do this with the modem attached to each of the serial ports in turn
(one at a time, that is, not both at once), and you should find out which is S0.
Finally, there may be an IRQ problem, depending on where your mouse and (if
you have one) NIC are located. Check "more /proc/interrupts" to make sure
IRQ 4 (S0) and 3 (S1) are either unused or assigned to the serial ports. If
IRQ 4 is being used by something else (rare in my experience) then that is
blocking access to the serial port and hence to the modem.
It's been years since I've used kermit, so I'll leave to someone else the
specifics of getting that to work.
At 07:55 PM 4/1/99 -0500, T. Sean (Theo) Schulze wrote [abridged]:
>Well, ok, I apologize for the subject, but it seemed sort of apropos. I
>am having problems with figuring out which serial port my modem is on. I
>am using a SuSE Linux 6.0 system.
>
>I have a working modem connection that uses an internal 28.8 modem. It
>is on /dev/ttyS3. I want to install an external 56K modem, and I have
>attached it to both of the serial port connections coming out of the back
>of my computer. The modem came with a cable that has one male 9-pin
>RS232 connector on one end and one 9-pin and one 25-pin RS232 connector
>on the other end. I connected the male end to the modem and both of the
>female ends to the computer. I figured that with both cables connected,
>one was bound to work. :-)
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
762 Garland Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603
650.328.4219 voice [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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