Re: Does anyone care about dialup?
On Mon, May 07, 2012 at 03:16:55PM -0700, Paul Zimmerman wrote:
> Why is it so difficult to get dialup to work in Linux? It has been this
> way for many years, too. I tried a different distro in 1996 when dialup
> modems were still the main means of Internet access for most home
> users, and it was painfully difficult then, as well.
> Since KDE 4 is such a hog I decided to try to get Gnome-ppp working and
> avoid having to load the 70+ megabytes of otherwise unneeded libraries
> just for KPPP. Aside from the various files you have to track down and
> change permissions for, BOTH wvdial and Gnome-ppp are ridiculously
> buggy. It is necessary to disable carrier detect to prevent instant
> loss of a connection. In both of them. Yes, the only way to stay online
> with Gnome-ppp and wvdial is to NOT watch carrier status. So why is
> this function even there if it is useless? Or why hasn't it been FIXED
> if it is needed? Is Gnome-ppp still being maintained? Also, Gnome-ppp
> doesn't understand more than one dialer entry in the wvdial.conf file.
> It uses the last one regardless of how many there are. And it won't
> keep many other settings, such as dock in the notification area. You
> have to remember to reset this every time you run it.
> Further, either the pppd is buggy or the kernel is. Again, you cannot
> stay online with the ppd as configured. You have to disable all forms
> of compression or your connection will mysteriously stop working after
> only a few minutes. I remember this problem from my 1996 experiment
> with Linux. It has something to do with loss of "sync" between the
> remote and the local systems. As I recall, the help page I found on it
> said it was a KERNEL driver problem. Sixteen years later, this problem
> has still not been fixed!? And if it has been around this long, why
> would any distro still be shipping its pppd configured in a way
> guaranteed not to work? Is it so hard to edit some text files so the
> system will work as installed?
> But even being able to dial out and connect is not the end of the
> troubles. Somehow the port is not released when Gnome-ppp/wvdial exits
> and I get "permission denied" when I try to use the modem again after
> disconnecting. It is necessary to run a script to RESTART the
> sl-modem-daemon to use the modem again. This is ridiculous. It's like
> being sent back to the days of MS-DOS where you have to kill and reload
> things to make them work.
> Does anyone working on Linux care about dialup? Some people do still
> have uses for it, and some even depend on it.
I live in a very remote rural area, so dialup is my only option.
Someone else suggested wvdial, which works and is good, but I prefer
to use pppconfig to create the connection, pon/poff to start/end it,
and pppstatus so I can see how many curse words and which ones are
appropriate when waiting for things to download.
Obviously, make sure your modem is supported, install any required formware/
drivers, etc. Some of them won't notify you that there is missing stuff so
you have to be diligent. I had to buy a modem because the built-in one was
unsupported altogether in Linux. Bought a USRobotics USB modem, and it works
perfectly.
HTH!
--
❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤
Indulekha
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