pppd troubles

[MaD dUCK <madduck@madduck.net>]

hey all,
we are still failing to establish a connection with wvdial and pppd
(on a potato system). wvdial looks all good, until we get to the
login:

  --> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.
  login:
  --> Looks like a login prompt.
  --> Sending: heikkin
  heikkin
  Password:
  --> Looks like a password prompt.
  --> Sending: (password)
  Entering PPP mode.
  Async interface address is unnumbered (Ethernet0)
  Your IP address is 216.114.40.29. MTU is 1500 bytes
  --> Looks like a welcome message.
  --> Starting pppd at Tue Jun 19 16:56:35 2001
  --> PPP daemon has died! (exit code = 1)
  --> Disconnecting at Tue Jun 19 16:56:35 2001

plog reports the following:

  Jun 19 16:56:35 orange pppd[1408]: pppd 2.3.11 started by root, uid 0
  Jun 19 16:56:35 orange pppd[1408]: Couldn't attach tty to PPP unit 0:
    Invalid argument
  Jun 19 16:56:35 orange pppd[1408]: tcsetattr: Invalid argument
  Jun 19 16:56:35 orange pppd[1408]: Exit.

i can't find anything about this online, so i am turing to you. any
clues why this machine cannot establish a connection with any ISP? we
tried three so far, same results everywhere. and pon/poff doesn't do
any better.

martin;              (greetings from the heart of the sun.)
  \____ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; net@madduck
-- 
this site has moved.
we'd tell you where, but then
we'd have to delete you.