Dialup modem in Linux

[nuz]

Tried out both Fedora and Puppy. Puppy's quite impressive, except for one minor issue. It constantly makes my desktop bigger than my screen.
However, I couldn't get my dialup modem running. It's an external USB type. Puppy detects it during bootup, even shows it in the hardware section, but keeps looking for a modem on a serial port. How do I point the dialer to the USB tree?

[Paul Komski]

One of the most persistent flaws with all Linux distros for a long time has been poor support for software or win modems. Nearly all PCI and USB modems are soft ones (no dedicated controller) and nearly all serial modems are hard - but it's not ubiquitous either way round. Not all hardware modems are easy to setup either but I certainly don't remember ever getting a USB dial up modem to work under Linux.

In my own hands those modems that use Intel 536EP chipsets (http://developer.intel.com/design/modems/products/536ep.htm) (whether PCI or Serial) have been the most consistently successful. The other approach is to search the web and the forums for the distro of your choice and find out if there have been workarounds for your modem or whether there are modems that have been no-brainers to use. I found the Ubuntu forums very helpful in this area; I cant speak for others.

[Sylvander]

1. "constantly makes my desktop bigger than my screen"
Hmmm, never seen that on my own PC, or seen that being reported in the Puppy Linux forums.
Did you configure a suitable sceensize at 1st boot?
You could I'm sure reconfigure that within Puppy, but where?
Try "Menu->Xorg Video Wizard" [did you choose Xorg at 1st boot?]
Note there is a "Resolution Changer" and also xvidtune->[will auto-config displaced screen, or wrong width/height (use with caution)].
Good idea to backup before making changes, and restore if it goes horribly wrong.
I use one Puppy to make a [Pudd] backup of another [if HDD install].

2."I couldn't get my dialup modem running. It's an external USB type"
Found THIS (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1202601819&t=14220) at the Puppy Linux forums.

[Paul Komski]

2."I couldn't get my dialup modem running. It's an external USB type"
Found THIS at the Puppy Linux forums.I don't think the link is a fix. The guy couldn't detect the serial hardware modem (which is normally the easiest with Linux) yet alone via a serial to USB adapter and then hope that the OS would now configure the same modem via USB. Serial to USB adapters are mostly used for simple serial communications rather than the more complex duplex operations used by modems and are increasingly to be found for modern systems that may well lack an external Serial Port at all. If puppy can only configure COM 1 to 4 many such devices may well be non-starters.

As for the display issue, it may well be that you need to try the Vesa rather than the Xorg option. What sort of monitor and card are in use? In contrast to Sylvander I have seen this often enough with both Puppy and other Linux distros. Funnily enough not more than an hour ago with Puppy on an older monitor I couldn't see the Start button or any of the left row of icons on the desktop without manually shifting the display using the monitor's set of buttons. There is usually (but not always) some cheat code that will let (at least a standard VGA) mode be displayed with most software/hardware combinations.

[nuz]

What sort of monitor and card are in use?
ViewSonic E40 running off an ATi Radeon 9200 SE. It's not too severe a problem, I set resolution to 1024X768, and the software resized it to 1176X768.

[Paul Komski]

I set resolution to 1024X768The max for that 14" CRT. Maybe coincidence but my own problem monitor mentioned earlier was also a 14" monitor; an ancient Sony CRT model CPD 110-EST.

[nuz]

I suppose the age is a major factor. Mine's about 10 years old. I tried the same CD on a friend's laptop, worked fine.
On going through some linux forums (googled linux usb dialup modem) I found the most common fix suggested is, from what I understand, to point the dialer to dev/usb/modem instead of dev/modem. The most concise description is here (http://books.google.com/books?id=pvsvNov6hE0C&pg=PA991&lpg=PA991&dq=linux+usb+dial+up+modem&source=bl&ots=2ztRn9kZJF&sig=PV4fFRFZe2bGt4ZsbCEXOBVUL_g&hl=en&ei=OvolSuCBMpGUjAf0tLTpBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6). Also found this (http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29291).

[Sylvander]

Perhaps you should try an older version of Puppy Linux.

[Paul Komski]

but keeps looking for a modem on a serial port

Serial port and COM port are often and erroneously used as synonyms. All dialup modems use serial communications and all do this via COM device enumeration.

The important chip in serial communications (in both directions for modems) is the UART chip. It is directly linked to any physical ports on the motherboard (typically a male DE-9 port) using RS232 voltage and wiring protocols. Up to four can be detected by the BIOS and referenced in fixed "legacy" positions in memory. That is why external ports and COM1 through COM4 are usually no-brainers for both DOS and Linux. In addition, external modems connecting to these ports nearly always have their own controller and don't have to keep asking the CPU for help - that is the essence of such hardware devices; hardware modems in this instance.

USB and PCI modems have their own communication chips (and in addition are usually controllerless so do share CPU time in doing all the necessary calculations and what not). Their COM enumeration is thus very varied and the ways of communicating with their chipsets not standard nor legacy in nature and they are not generally as stable because they are most commonly "soft" in nature. Their inception was mainly to have cheap internal modems mass produced and distributed by the OEMs producing Windows systems.

I am sure that if you persist in true geek style you may eventually be able to work around the current problems and be able to configure your USB modem. If you don't want the headaches and to have a really good chance of having a stable modem that will work with most nearly all operating systems then splash out on something like a Hayes Accura V92 Serial Modem (http://www.ciao.com/Hayes_ACCURA_V_92_External_Faxmodem_Model_H08_1532 8_fax_modem__15396910).

I had a look for one of the PCI Hardware-based Intel 536EP modems but couldn't find any. In fact the range of dialup modems that can be purchased nowadays is shrinking all the time - presumably due to the growth in broadband. It is another reason, for anyone likely to need dial-up for the foreseeable future, to invest in a decent modem now when they are still relatively easy to find and purchase.

[nuz]

The only reason I got a USB modem is that my old serial one got fried some time ago and no serial modems were available. I could get an internal one, I suppose, but I prefer having it where I can see it.

[Paul Komski]

no serial modems were available

Zoom (http://www.zoom.com/products/dial_up_external_serial.html) have been in the business a long time and if you get stuck in the future they would be more than likely to still be producing them.