Re: Modem Inaccessible

Ray Olszewski
2006-07-17T15:54:59Z

I can't be sure, Peter, but my hunch is that you are looking in the
wrong place. I'm assuming the modem is attached to a serial port and is
not one of those pseudo-modems that requires a special module (If I'm
wrong, then you really left out important info) in what follows.

Serial port support is all but always compiled into kernels, not added
as modules. (And I don't see anything that looks like a serial-port
module in either of the lists you sent us, in any case.) But setting up
serial ports so they actually work requires running "setserial" with
appropriate values.

I'd suggest you approach this by:

(a) Finding out what /dev/modem is a symlink to
(b) Running setserial on that device (e.g., "setserial /dev/ttyS0") to
see what settings are present.

If they are different between Slackware and Fedora, that points to your
problem. If you can't spot it yourself, post here the COMPLETE results
of this testing and probably someone can help you spot it.

You might also check the init-script sructures of the two distros to see
where and how (and even if) both run setserial.

Peter wrote:
> Slackware 10.2, kernel 2.6.16
>
> Suddenly I cannot access my modem.
>
> Minicom will just stay offline.
>
> efax version 0.9
> minicom version 2.1
>
> Giving command: fax receive
> I get:
>
> efax: 12:25 opened /dev/modem
> efax: 12:25 Error: tcgetattr on fd=3 failed: Input/output error
> efax: 12:25 Error: fax device write: Input/output error
> efax: 12:29 Error: fax device write: Input/output error
> efax: 12:31 sync: dropping DTR
> efax: 12:31 Error: tcgetattr on fd=3 failed: Input/output error
> efax: 12:31 Error: tcgetattr on fd=3 failed: Input/output error
> efax: 37:31 Error: sync: modem not responding
> efax: 37:31 Error: tcgetattr on fd=3 failed: Input/output error
> efax: 37:31 done, returning 2 (unrecoverable error)
> There were errors (see 0717143714.log).
>
> I tried it with kernel 2.4.31, it will not work either.
>
> I moved over to Fedora4, same machine, same HD. Minicom is on-line and dials
> and pppd dialing is working as well, meaning there is nothing wrong with the
> hardware.
>
> Here is the output of lsmod in Fed4 w/o the snd_ bits:
>
> Module Size Used by
> md5 4033 1
> ipv6 268097 8
> parport_pc 28933 1
> lp 13001 0
> parport 40585 2 parport_pc,lp
> autofs4 29253 2
> it87 23521 0
> eeprom 7377 0
> i2c_sensor 3521 2 it87,eeprom
> i2c_isa 2241 0
> rfcomm 42333 0
> l2cap 30661 5 rfcomm
> bluetooth 56133 4 rfcomm,l2cap
> sunrpc 167813 1
> ipt_REJECT 5569 1
> ipt_state 1857 4
> ip_conntrack 41497 1 ipt_state
> iptable_filter 2881 1
> ip_tables 19521 3 ipt_REJECT,ipt_state,iptable_filter
> ide_scsi 18761 0
> scsi_mod 148105 1 ide_scsi
> dm_mod 58101 0
> video 15941 0
> button 6609 0
> ac 4805 0
> uhci_hcd 35152 0
> ehci_hcd 41037 0
> shpchp 94405 0
> i2c_viapro 8017 0
> i2c_core 21569 5 it87,eeprom,i2c_sensor,i2c_isa,i2c_viapro
> snd_via82xx 30081 1
> gameport 18633 1 snd_via82xx
> soundcore 10913 2 snd
> via_rhine 28361 0
> mii 5441 1 via_rhine
> dmfe 23525 0
> floppy 65269 0
> ext3 132553 3
> jbd 86233 1 ext3
>
> And here lsmod of Slack:
> Module Size Used by Not tainted
> i2c-dev 3620 0 (unused)
> i2c-core 12676 0 [i2c-dev]
> snd-pcm-oss 36736 0
> snd-mixer-oss 12376 2 [snd-pcm-oss]
> pci_hotplug 15236 0
> uhci 24284 0 (unused)
> ehci-hcd 17516 0 (unused)
> usbcore 59148 1 [uhci ehci-hcd]
> snd-via82xx 13376 2
> gameport 1420 0 [snd-via82xx]
> Module Size Used by Not tainted
> i2c-dev 3620 0 (unused)
> i2c-core 12676 0 [i2c-dev]
> snd-pcm-oss 36736 0
> snd-mixer-oss 12376 2 [snd-pcm-oss]
> pci_hotplug 15236 0
> uhci 24284 0 (unused)
> ehci-hcd 17516 0 (unused)
> usbcore 59148 1 [uhci ehci-hcd]
> snd-via82xx 13376 2
> gameport 1420 0 [snd-via82xx]
> soundcore 3396 4 [snd]
> via-rhine 12336 0 (unused)
> mii 2272 0 [via-rhine]
> pcmcia_core 39172 0
> ide-scsi 9392 0
> dmfe 12577 1
> crc32 2880 0 [via-rhine dmfe]
> agpgart 45508 0 (unused)
> lp 6404 0
> parport_pc 15044 1
> parport 22824 1 [lp parport_pc]
>
> Where could be the hitch that the modem is not responding in slackware?
>
> Thanks for any help!