[hcflinux] modem not working part73

[George Bell]

patrick reen wrote:

> Entered "proc/pci" in root terminal - got"permission denied"

You need to be logged in as user "root".  Can do this from any terminal 
logged in as any user by entering "su root" and then enter root password.

>   modem is working fine with my other hard drive [win 2000] on same 
> ide cable - don't

Modems don't aren't much related to harddrives.  They are just another 
piece of hardware as a card on the PCI bus or connected externally to a 
serial or usb port.

> know the manufacturer - suspect it's just a generic oem on my dell 
> dimension 4100 - I'm not sure what you mean by "play with bios" - and 
> "proc/pci"  how do I enter that? - IS

If modem works o.k. in windows then probably unecessary to change the bios.

> there a definative way I can get computer to see modem or tell me if 
> it does or not. Thanks

There are a few ways:

1) Look at the boot messages.  Those boot messages you see scrolling up 
the screen when you boot the computer are(kind of) in a file called 
/var/log/boot.msg ( more /var/log/boot.msg).  boot.msg is replaced with 
the newest one whenever you boot the computer.  You can also type "dmesg 
| more" or dmesg | grep PCI.  dmesg is basically the same thing.   As 
the kernel detects the hardware when the computer boots, it is reported 
in these messages.   They are not terribly long and a good source of 
information.  For example, on my SuSE system my modem is detected as:

<6>PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:09.0
<6>ttyS04 at port 0xb800 (irq = 5) is a 16550A

2) Try "more /proc/pci"  as user "root".  The permissions may be set on 
the file "pci" such that only root has access.  My modem is listed 
there, but unfortuneately it is difficult to tell by the data to tell it 
is really a modem.

3)lspci shows in one screen that I have a Communications controller, 
lspci - v shows more info over several screens.

4) On my SuSe system, yast has a hardware scan utility which displays 
the make and manufacturer of the modem.  Redhat must have its own version.

The messages may not be terriblely informative though.   If all this 
fails to provide a solid answer then start minicom with the port set at 
/dev/SCHF0.   You don't even have to enter any commands.  When minicom 
starts it will initialize the modem at /dev/SCHF0.  If the modem 
responds with "OK", then you can be sure you have a modem on your 
system!   If you get the "OK" response you can get a little bolder and 
try to deliver the following command within minicom "AT+FCLASS=?" or 
"ATI0"   The modem should reply to you by listing an alphanumeric text 
string on one line, the give you "OK" again when it's finished the command.

If none of this works, then it is possible you have a very obnoxious 
modem which works only with windows and/or possibly may not have a 
Conexant(formerly Rockwell?)  chipset, in which case the hcf drivers 
won't work at all.  The only recourse is to buy another modem.  Modems 
with conexant chipsets are quite common and it should not be difficult 
to find one.  I bought a digicom(but it was called a Hayes Accura) modem 
at a computer super store that worked fine with the linuxant drivers.

Good luck,

George