How to use Trendnet RS232 serial port dial-up modem?

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Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

How to use Trendnet RS232 serial port dial-up modem?

#1 Post by Johannes »

Hello There

I was very Happy to discover Puppy Linux and have had some success with it. I have burned an ISO and created a bootable USB :-)

I have spent several years getting ready to try Linux and have read tutorials in regards to what dial up modems work, and have prepared in advance with buying a new Trendnet external dial up modem for RS232 serial port. Model TFM 560X

I have installed it in Windows and it works and uses COM1 which is /dev/ttyS0

I have installed Puppy 4.3.1 and it does not recognize the modem. I have had the modem installed and turned on at boot up time.

Puppy does see my internal soft modem but says sorry modem not detected. That is OK, I would like to get this external modem running.

I have tried to blacklist and erase the internal modem and press Probe and also Probe /dev/ttyS0 and it also says modem not found.

I was reading in Puppy Help that support for the serial modem has been dropped.

Does anyone know how to get the external dial up modem to run ?

Thanks, Johannes

muggins
Posts: 6724
Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#2 Post by muggins »

I've had problems before, where PuPDial doesn't see an external serial modem because it detects the internal modem first( from memory it was a conexant HSF variety).

Trying "Erase" didn't work, but once I eliminated everything involved with the internal modem, then pupdial could see my serial modem. Can you give more info on the specs of your internal modem?

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

#3 Post by Johannes »

Hello Muggins

The internal modem is an Agere Systems AC'97 Modem.

The computer is an HP nc6000 laptop

When I boot Puppy I forgot that it says "you may need to supply an initialisation string"

Initialisation string 2 ATZ
Initialisation string 3 there is nothing.

Modem Port /dev/ttySHSF0

probing it says that it finds driver hsfmc97ich

probing again it says driver cdc_acm hsfmc97ich

when connect is pushed it says sorry modem not detected ?

----------------------------------------------------------

If that doesnt work is there a way to stop Puppy from seeing the internal modem so that it may dial out on the external at /dev/ttyS0

Thanks, Johannes

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rerwin
Posts: 2017
Joined: Wed 24 Aug 2005, 22:50
Location: Maine, USA

#4 Post by rerwin »

Johannes,
I think I can help you. I have made many improvements to the modem support since 4.3.1. They are available as two dotpet packages here (pup_event... and modem...):
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 235#388235

They are intended to work on all puppies 4.3.1 and later (and are included in Quirky and Wary). They should also work in Boxpup, although I am not familiar with that puplet. Start with a clean Boxpup, which will still show ttySHSF as the modem. Get into PupDial and click "probe" and then "ERASE" and exit out of pupdial. Install the two packages and reboot.

However, on the first reboot, no modem will be detected! That is by design. You see, your modem, like mine in a ThinkPad T30, is claimed to be supported by 3 (!) drivers. But puppy is now clever about that. If it detects that the HSF driver (for ttySHSF0) rejects the modem, puppy makes a note to itself to try the other possibility, the Intel sound-modem driver, which actually uses the SmartLink driver. (The third driver is also a SmartLink for PCI modems, and would work as well.)

Please try that solution, since it would avoid the need to plug in the serial modem. Thanks for posting your problem. I have not been able to create documentation about this special case, because I continue to make changes and hope to wait until things settle down.

Please try this first, but if it doesn't work out, I can tell you how to suppress it to allow the serial modem to be probed. Such modems are not detected automatically, so you need to probe it the first time. After that, puppy just remembers it.
Richard

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

#5 Post by Johannes »

Hello Rerwin

I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to dial in. I have been fiddling with Linux now for about 5 years and Puppy is the first that allowed me to dial in :-) :-)

Now I will be able to start exploring and learning the system :-)

I followed your directions, installed the 2 files and re-booted several times. Puppy found my internal dial-up modem at dev/tty/SL0 and loaded driver snd_intel8X0m. It failed to dial a few times and so I checked the box for stupid mode. I dialed in and disconnected 4 times. Twice it was very slow but twice it was fairly fast, that's just our phone company having problems. Once it was on it didn't drop off so the problem is solved :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------

When I had installed Puppy first I somehow ended up with 2 pupsave files. So what I did next was to boot Puppy in my wife's computer using a different pupsave file and it worked very well there also. She has a Dell Vostro 1400 laptop with a Conexant HDA D330 MDC V.92 internal dial-up modem and that works well.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Is it possible to make another pupsave file and learn how to install the external dial-up modem as well. Yes it is a bother to connect but I don't really want to throw it in the garbage.

I appreciate your good work, Johannes

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rerwin
Posts: 2017
Joined: Wed 24 Aug 2005, 22:50
Location: Maine, USA

#6 Post by rerwin »

Johannes,
She has a Dell Vostro 1400 laptop with a Conexant HDA D330 MDC V.92 internal dial-up modem and that works well.
You have no idea how pleased I am to see this! Until now, I have not had confirmation that the Conexant HDA modems work. I got the patch for it into 4.3.1, but no feedback.

To achieve what muggins described, and assuming the modem plugs directly into a serial connector, the easy way is to go into pupdial, click "probe", then find the section of that window labeled "Autodetected modems". Look within that section for the list of modem drivers detected. I expect you will see hsfmc97ich, intel8x0m, slamr. Click the "BLACKLIST" button and blacklist all of those. (I am not sure why cdc_acm would be there, as it is for USB devices.) Then click "ERASE", exit pupdial and reboot without any USB modem (or adapter) plugged in. I expect you to see "No modem detected". Then go back into pupdial and "probe", "PROBE".

More about cdc_acm. If you plug the serial modem into USB-to-serial adapter,that is probably the driver for the USB interface to your serial modem. This situation is of interest, to me, so please tell me more. The way things are supposed to work (because I tried to make it so) is that all USB modems get detected before any PCI or sound-card modem. So, before doing the blacklist thing, if you haven't already done so, erase whatever the current modem is and reboot with the adapter and serial modem plugged in. The modem should be ttyACM0, if it is seen as a USB modem. If that doesn't happen, please run pmodemdiag and PM me the tar.gz file it produces. Then go ahead with the blacklist technique if things don't go that way.

Maybe the USB interface is considered invisible and the modem should be treated as if it were plugged into a serial port. In that case you would need to probe-PROBE to find it (after blacklisting).

I enjoy getting these new twists in the modem game. Thanks.
Richard

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

#7 Post by Johannes »

Hello Rerwin

I ran pmodemdiag but must have messed up somehow because the file was empty :-( sorry about that.

The external modem I am using plugs into the 9 pin serial port.

The first time I booted with the modem not plugged in there was no cdc_acm.

When I plugged in the external modem and booted the cdc_acm was there waiting for me. I ran pmodemdiag then but didnt work.

Then I sytematicaly blacklisted and erased every driver.

I ended up with the driver agrserial and could not get it erased even if I booted with the modem unplugged.

That rang a bell so I booted into Windows and the Trendnet external dial up modem is called "Agere OCM Serial Modem".

The modem was at devttyAGS3 and It would not erase.

Pupdial let me dial but nothing happened.

Thanks. Johannes

User avatar
rerwin
Posts: 2017
Joined: Wed 24 Aug 2005, 22:50
Location: Maine, USA

#8 Post by rerwin »

Johannes,
Duh! The external modem I tested with a year or so ago is the exact model you have! I verified that I could get it to work back then. I am out of time for today, but I will hook it up again tomorrow to verify it still works. And I already have an internal modem on the test PC, so have a similar situation to yours.

The first thing to do, now, is to blacklist agrserial and any other driver that shows up in the probe window of pupdial. You should boot up to "No modem detected". Then you would probe, which should find ttyS0.

I sure would like to see the pmodemdiag file of your setup, particularly to see the modem hardware IDs in pupscan. You run pmodemdiag from a console -- just type in that name. It also responds to the --help argument, if you are curious about it. When you run it with no argument, it should tell you what it is doing. Tell me if you get error messages from it -- that might be why the file is empty. If empty, check for a folder in /tmp named pmodemdiag. . . If it is not empty, make an archive of it (Menu > Utility > Xarchive).

I know that modem will work, but we just have to blacklist the built-in modems so they won't be detected.
Richard

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

#9 Post by Johannes »

Hello Rerwin

I also have to stop working on this as I have to go back to work today (Mon)

On the past weekend I tried to blacklist and erase agrserial about 10 times and it would not go away.

Thank you very much for your help :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------

My Puppy on the HP would go online but not browse. After
about 10 hrs work I gave up and fresh installed it. I immediately was able to browse. I decided to un-check the stupid mode box to see if it would go faster. I immediately was not able to browse. I believe my ISP firewalled me.

I went over to account 2 and entered my data, made sure stupid mode was checked and was able to browse again :-)

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

Trendnet serial modem

#10 Post by Johannes »

Hello There

It is winter in Canada so I have some time to work on this. I have tried to get my Puppy Lupu 500 to dial out with no succes, mounted on a flashdrive.

I decided I wanted a little more secure instalation and have installed it in Virtualbox.

In Virtualbox i connected the guest (Puppy) to the host (Windows XP)

I enabled serial port
then set
Port Number (COM1)
Port Mode (Host Device)
Port Path (COM1)

When I started Puppy in Virtualbox it found the serial modem and I was able to dial out.

The problem is that it only stays on-line for a few seconds and drops off.
I am including a pmodemdiag, and maybe someone can please tell me what is wrong?

I am a beginner

Thanks, Johannes

Johannes
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 10 May 2010, 03:50

Installed Wary .9

#11 Post by Johannes »

Hi

Since my last post I have uninstalled all my Puppys and have gone to the library and downloaded and installed Wary .9 into Virtualbox.

It immediately found the external dial up modem and dialed out. It stays on-line for a few seconds and then drops off.

Once I realized that it was not going to work I unchecked "stupid mode" so I could watch the log-in procedure.

I copied the log and this is it below

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.53
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT2254638
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT2254638
CONNECT 32000 V44
User Access Verification
Username:
--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
Username:
--> Looks like a login prompt.
--> Sending: myname@mts.net
myname@mts.net
Password:
--> Looks like a password prompt.
--> Sending: (password)
Server "swrvmb01bb6-ac01" Line 82 Terminal-type vt100
*******************************************************
* MTS Internet Access Server *
*******************************************************
Your default nameserver is at 142.161.2.155
Your secondary nameserver is at 142.161.130.155
Your default homepage is at www.mts.net
Your default news server is at news.mts.net
Your default pop mail server is at pop.mts.net
Your default smtp mail server is at smtp.mts.net
--> Don't know what to do! Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Fri Oct 22 23:23:16 2010
--> pid of pppd: 29976

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When it quit it said "exit code = 16" the other modem hung up.

I have searched for that code and a lot of people have that problem but no solution :-(

An old post on Puppy said to download and install Gkdial, is that a possibility?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks, Johannes

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