Re: pppd daemon dies

[cr <cr@orcon.net.nz>]

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 00:58, John Hasler wrote:
> cr writes:
> > Other question - what's the 'proper' way to give a user (me) access to
> > ppp?
>
> Add the user to the dip group.  It is not necessary to add the user to
> dialout as pppd opens the device while running as root.

Thanks!   I added myself to the dip group, and sure enough kppp now starts up 
for me.   

I also remembered to add 'noauth' as an option in my kppp setup (which worked 
fine when I was dialling as root).    However, Kppp dials in, OK, but as soon 
as connection is established it drops out with 'using noauth option requires 
root privilege'.   

If I remove the noauth option, then I'm back to the previous error of 'remote 
system is required to authenticate itself'.

The obvious 'fix' of adding myself to group 'root' is, I think, not a good 
idea   ;)

However I seem to have fixed it - I'll include this in case it helps anyone:

/etc/ppp/options   says:

# Require the peer to authenticate itself before allowing network
# packets to be sent or received.
# Please do not disable this setting. It is expected to be standard in
# future releases of pppd. Use the call option (see manpage) to disable
# authentication for specific peers.
auth

So probably changing it to 'noauth' would work, but is, I assume, not 
approved.     (And, reading between the lines, auth may be 'hard-wired' in in 
newer pppd's?)

The 'correct' way seems to be  (my ISP is called 'Orcon' for purposes of 
illustration):

Copy  /etc/ppp/peers/provider   as  /etc/ppp/peers/orcon
and edit the file 'orcon' to suit  (e.g. include 'noauth', and in my case 
comment out the sample chat script
# connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/provider" )

Then, to use the 'call' option with Kppp, just do 

Setup -> (Orcon Internet) -> Edit -> pppd arguments -> 
[type in:]  call orcon   -> Add


Hope I've got this right.    

cr