Modem changes behavior after Sarge Update
I set up my system to use Sarge because of the reputation for Debian
stability. Now, ever since I updated my system with "aptitude upgrade" it
won't work and this is causing a SERIOUS problem. I've never liked posts
that say, "NEED HELP", or "URGENT" in the subject, but I do need help
figuring this out quickly. This is one of those small business situations
where everything I'm working on has to stop until this is fixed. If at all
possible, I need to find a way to fix it by tomorrow at 6 am.
I've included the modem and serial port information first, then included the
background about the problems I've had since upgrading Sarge (which really
messed up my system). I've been verbose because I want to make sure all the
details that could help are included. Any help is appreciated!
In this case I have a US Robotics external serial modem attached to the
system. I have a number of programs that use this throughout the day. Since
the primary system I communicate with can take up to 8 hours to connect to
(it's that busy!), all my software checks to see if it is connected, then
does it's job. If it isn't connected, then it dials the system until it
connects. There has never been a problem before with a program exiting and
leaving the modem online for the next program to use.
Now whenever a program ends, or if I kill a program (so it doesn't have time
to exit), I can tell by watching the modem that it hangs up immediately (the
carrier detect led goes off instantly, along with the clear-to-send light).
I'd think this was a Perl problem, since my programs are in Perl, but it
can't be a reset routine, since I lose the connection even if I kill the
program, without it being able to go through closing down.
I do not have a detailed knowledge of serial interfaces, but my best guess is
that a setting was changed on the serial port or there is something different
in the newer kernel in device drivers. Any help in figuring out what I need
to check in serial port settings or device drivers would be extremely
helpful. (The modem does not use a special driver.)
And, under additional information, here's the whole history, including and
since it was working perfectly:
I did "aptitude update && aptitude upgrade". Here is the log of the upgrade:
[UPGRADE] cupsys 1.1.23-10 -> 1.1.23-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] cupsys-bsd 1.1.23-10 -> 1.1.23-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] cupsys-client 1.1.23-10 -> 1.1.23-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] gnupg 1.4.1-1 -> 1.4.1-1sarge1
[UPGRADE] gzip 1.3.5-10 -> 1.3.5-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] kernel-image-2.6.8-2-386 2.6.8-16 -> 2.6.8-16sarge1
[UPGRADE] kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686 2.6.8-16 -> 2.6.8-16sarge1
[UPGRADE] libcupsimage2 1.1.23-10 -> 1.1.23-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] libcupsys2-gnutls10 1.1.23-10 -> 1.1.23-10sarge1
[UPGRADE] mdadm 1.9.0-4 -> 1.9.0-4sarge1
[UPGRADE] perl 5.8.4-8 -> 5.8.4-8sarge3
[UPGRADE] perl-base 5.8.4-8 -> 5.8.4-8sarge3
[UPGRADE] perl-doc 5.8.4-8 -> 5.8.4-8sarge3
[UPGRADE] perl-modules 5.8.4-8 -> 5.8.4-8sarge3
[UPGRADE] samba 3.0.14a-3 -> 3.0.14a-3sarge1
[UPGRADE] samba-common 3.0.14a-3 -> 3.0.14a-3sarge1
[UPGRADE] smbclient 3.0.14a-3 -> 3.0.14a-3sarge1
[UPGRADE] sudo 1.6.8p7-1.2 -> 1.6.8p7-1.3
[UPGRADE] xpdf-common 3.00-13 -> 3.00-13.5
[UPGRADE] xpdf-utils 3.00-13 -> 3.00-13.5
While it was upgrading, it warned me that I would have to reboot, since some
kernel modules were updated in the same kernel version that I was using. So
when it finished all the updating, I rebooted. It would not boot. I spent
the entire day on Sunday trying to figure this out. I have an Adaptec
ASH-1233 IDE controller card for some of the drives in my RAID and it creates
problems with the drive order. It seems when the kernel was updated, apt or
dpkg ran update-grub (without telling me -- you always get a choice of
whether or not to update config files with apt, but it just
overwrites /boot/grub/menu.lst without even telling you it is doing it!). My
special settings were erased. It took me most of Sunday to track down the
problem. While doing that, I had tried different boot configurations, and
with the Adaptec card, it made it hard to tell which drive it would try to
boot.
When I finally got it back online, the RAID was trashed (I had NOT written to
ANY drives or in ANY directory other than /boot/grub). All my data and
program files were on the RAID. Fortunately, I had a backup from only a few
hours before the meltdown (thanks to rsync). So I used rsync to restore the
RAID drive and all my programs, data, and settings. I carefully checked and
made sure all the settings were intact. The boot drive, other than menu.lst,
seemed intact. The next day, the modem dialed up to the system okay, but did
not do any processing, since it was a holiday and the data was not available.
Today, the modem can dial and function, EXCEPT whenever the program using it
ends or is killed, the modem drops its connection. I have no idea why, so
any help is appreciated. What could be changed that could force the modem to
hang up whenever the controlling program is killed?
Thanks for any help!
Hal
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