Motorola SM56, PPPD and connecting to the Internet in Debian

["S Yuval" <syuval@SoftHome.net>]

 I'm trying to connect to the Internet with my Motorola SM56 modem on Debian
3.0r1. I'm facing two problems: my the SM56 is a soft-modem that uses a
driver that is no longer supported and requires running kernel 2.4.2, and
Debian uses kernel 2.4.18.
                 In previous correspondence some supporters suggested that I
uncomment several lines circa line 1100 in the slabs.c file in my kernel and
recompile. This doesn't work and, as it turns out, these lines are already
uncommented.
                Another user suggested installing the old Red Hat 7.1 kernel
that supported my modem (namely, version 2.4.2). Therefore, I've
 "debianized" the kernel package and the modem package using alien and
installed them. This allows the modem to run and dial through Debian;
however, it turns out that the PPPD daemon cannot use this kernel. Whenever
I dial up and log on to my ISP I receive a message informing me that PPPD
has died unexpectedly.
                Let me add that I have two versions of the modem driver:
SM56_5.1.rpm and sm56_84_Prev5.rpm and both run on the old kernel and do not
run on newer kernels. Also, I have been unable to use the modem drivers
under an original Debian 2.4.10 kernel, which is closer to the 2.4.2 kernel,
but still too "advanced".
                With either PPPD or the modem driver not working, what
should I do?
                I'd appreciate your assistance

Shahar Yuval