On Mon, May 07, 2012 at 03:16:55PM -0700, Paul Zimmerman wrote: > Why is it so difficult to get dialup to work in Linux? It has been this > way for many years, too. I tried a different distro in 1996 when dialup > modems were still the main means of Internet access for most home > users, and it was painfully difficult then, as well. > Since KDE 4 is such a hog I decided to try to get Gnome-ppp working and > avoid having to load the 70+ megabytes of otherwise unneeded libraries > just for KPPP. Aside from the various files you have to track down and > change permissions for, BOTH wvdial and Gnome-ppp are ridiculously > buggy. It is necessary to disable carrier detect to prevent instant > loss of a connection. In both of them. Yes, the only way to stay online > with Gnome-ppp and wvdial is to NOT watch carrier status. So why is > this function even there if it is useless? Or why hasn't it been FIXED > if it is needed? Is Gnome-ppp still being maintained? Also, Gnome-ppp > doesn't understand more than one dialer entry in the wvdial.conf file. > It uses the last one regardless of how many there are. And it won't > keep many other settings, such as dock in the notification area. You > have to remember to reset this every time you run it. > Further, either the pppd is buggy or the kernel is. Again, you cannot > stay online with the ppd as configured. You have to disable all forms > of compression or your connection will mysteriously stop working after > only a few minutes. I remember this problem from my 1996 experiment > with Linux. It has something to do with loss of "sync" between the > remote and the local systems. As I recall, the help page I found on it > said it was a KERNEL driver problem. Sixteen years later, this problem > has still not been fixed!? And if it has been around this long, why > would any distro still be shipping its pppd configured in a way > guaranteed not to work? Is it so hard to edit some text files so the > system will work as installed? > But even being able to dial out and connect is not the end of the > troubles. Somehow the port is not released when Gnome-ppp/wvdial exits > and I get "permission denied" when I try to use the modem again after > disconnecting. It is necessary to run a script to RESTART the > sl-modem-daemon to use the modem again. This is ridiculous. It's like > being sent back to the days of MS-DOS where you have to kill and reload > things to make them work. > Does anyone working on Linux care about dialup? Some people do still > have uses for it, and some even depend on it.
I live in a very remote rural area, so dialup is my only option. Someone else suggested wvdial, which works and is good, but I prefer to use pppconfig to create the connection, pon/poff to start/end it, and pppstatus so I can see how many curse words and which ones are appropriate when waiting for things to download. Obviously, make sure your modem is supported, install any required formware/ drivers, etc. Some of them won't notify you that there is missing stuff so you have to be diligent. I had to buy a modem because the built-in one was unsupported altogether in Linux. Bought a USRobotics USB modem, and it works perfectly. HTH! -- ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ Indulekha -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20120508005033.GA1377@radhesyama
