forwarded ppp question, possible debian "missing docs" bugs
Hi Mark --
I took the liberty of forwarding your note to the debian devel list for 2
reasons: (1) they might be able to answer your question (if not, I might
be able to help interactively); and (2) the documentation issues you raise
are considered bugs by debian, because any lack of appropriate docs is also
considered a debian bug.
To debian devel crowd:
pls take a look. This is a note from Mark Stone at
O'Reilly & assoc; he asks how to dial in and suggests that more documentation
is needed. While I don't have any sort of vote, I will say that as a debian
user, I would agree that if the documentation doesn't adequately cover how
to use CHAP and PAP authentication, it should. Further, if absent, it's a bug.
-Jim
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Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 21:37:49 -0800 (PST)
From: Mark Stone <markst@oreilly.com>
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To: balug-talk@balug.org
Subject: Linux dial-up: the good, the bad, and the ugly
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The Linux crowd certainly has a lot to be proud of these days. We've
gotten a lot of attention, people seem to finally be catching on that this
a stable, powerful system, and businesses seem to think that maybe they
can trust Linux after all.
But let's not forget that we still have a LONG way to go before Linux
offers real ease of use. Today I hit the latest example of the sad state
of Linux documentation. For months now I have been using pppd and chat to
connect with my ISP, with reasonable success. Mind you, I had to take
documentation from three different sources, ALL of which were partially
wrong, and mix and match with a bit of trial and error to get this
working, but in all it still only took me about 3 hours to get it all
figured out. Not for the faint of heart, but it works.
Or it did work. The numbers I used to dial in to are now almost constantly
hosed with that irritating "system busy" fast busy signal. My ISP has
other numbers I can use, but those numbers assume I'm using PAP to
authenticate when I connect; my existing chat scripts are useless.
Documentation on PAP is less than clear. I have found lots of examples of
a pap-secrets file, some vague instructions about my ppp/options file, and
nothing at all about my basic pppd invocation line nor how to modify chat
so that it just does the dial-up and leaves the authentication to ppp.
Given this perplexing state of affairs, I found it particularly ironic
that one book, ostensibly dedicated just to Linux networking, had this to
say:
<QUOTE>
There are two methods by which your system can create a PPP connection
with an ISP's machine: using standard Linux-style logins and passwords;
using CHAP or PAP for authentication. The method of using Linux-style
logins and passwords is <EM>much</EM> more difficult to set up. With CHAP
and PAP authentication, pppd itself handles these details: your dialer
script merely has to dial the telephone, and pppd itself takes care of
handshaking and authentication with the ISP's machine. The lesson is
clear: if your ISP offers CHAP or PAP authentication, use it!
</QUOTE>
Apparently the lesson is so clear that the means of using PAP need not
even be documented.
To add insult to irony, I picked this particular ISP because they are a
Linux shop. When I talked to the sys admin today he had a few clues to
offer, but no definite answers, and in the end had to say, "Well, I never
have to dial out anywhere using Linux, so I'm just not sure what's
involved."
So the lesson is clear to me: we're never going to be more than a geeky
hobbyist system until documentation gets much better, and ease of use is
seriously addressed.
And, by the way, if anyone has any suggestions for setting up PAP on a
Debian 1.3 system, I'd really appreciate it.
Mark
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