[hcflinux] SUCCESS AT LAST WITH THE AOPEN FM56-P HCF MODEM!

[Karl Scheel]

Un mille merci beaucoups au Monsieur Boucher pour ce draveur modem Linux!

I'm not sure whether the above statement in French is 100% correct, so I 
will repeat it in English. Marc, please correct me if I'm wrong:

A thousand thank-yous to Mr. Boucher for this Linux modem driver!

I tried twice before to download and install the binary rpm from your 
Web site that was specific to my version of Mandrake and found that on 
both attempts, the modem would not go off-hook and dial the number to my 
ISP, although I did hear something through the modem's speaker as your 
driver was accessing the modem. I found it very strange that the modem 
wouldn't dial via kppp's main program, but would dial via kppp's mini 
terminal window: Were they not both using the same modem driver to dial out?

I decided today to try my luck at downloading the generic source rpm 
from this Web site after uninstalling the binary rpm that was obtained 
previously. On my first attempt at rebuilding the new binary rpms as 
root at the command line interface, the rpm program asked if the 
kernel-source package was installed, saying that "KERNELSRC does not 
point to a proper directory (/lib/modules/2.4.18-6mdk/build)."

After installing the kernel-source package, I tried again. This time, 
the new binary rpms were successfully built; two files were written to 
the /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/i586 directory. One file was the driver 
installation rpm, and the other was the driver documentation rpm. I 
changed to that directory, and installed the driver. During the 
installation process, a message appeared on my screen saying that the 
file was being recompiled to match my system. Another message then told 
me to run "hcfpciconfig" to finish the installation process, so I did 
just that. Then I made sure that my /dev/modem link pointed to 
/dev/ttySHCF0.

After rebooting and logging-in as a user, I reconfigured kppp to use the 
/dev/modem link instead of /dev/ttyS1 (That link was for my external 
modem.). Then I tried dialing-out to my ISP via kppp. To my surprise, 
the modem went off-hook and dialed the number without any problems at 
all. And the connection remained stable; as a matter of fact the modem 
remains connected to my ISP as I compose this message. This of course 
means that there must be something wrong with the binary rpm that was 
supposed to match my version of Mandrake; although the binary was 
supposedly compiled within the same version of Mandrake that I am using, 
perhaps that system was set-up a little differently from mine, so the 
result was a slightly different binary that was just slightly 
incompatible with my system. I WILL NEVER AGAIN TRUST BINARY RPMS!

Now that this problem is resolved, my next mission is to see if this 
driver will enable my HCF modem to answer the phone via mgetty, send 
faxes via sendfax, and receive voice messages via vgetty.

Cheers!,

Karl