On 07/05/12 06:16 PM, 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.
The beauty of open source is that people who depend on things can take
action on them. The source code for the various dial-up packages is
available. If people using it find a problem with it, they can pool
their talents and/or resources to get it fixed.
For most of us, dial-up is just a distant memory. However, I did set up
a computer for a friend a few years ago and dial-up worked fine. She had
never used a computer before but had no trouble connecting from her
Ubuntu/Gnome desktop.
