# How to set up mwave modem in Gentoo ?

## LinuxAdmin

Hello all !

Does anybody have an experience of setting up IBM Thinkpad ACP modem in  Gentto ?

I've running this modem in RedHat/Fedora.

Now I've installed Gentoo and it's great distribution !!

But i can't setup mwave modem on my ThinkPad 600E to make it work.

So, the details:

-Thinkpad 600E

-Gentoo 2004.2 (fully upgraded with portage snapshot 16/12/2004)

- mwavem version 1.0.2 (not yet upgraded to 1.0.4)

- kernel 2.6.9-r4 (gentoo-dev-sources)

-devfsd device handler

The steps that I making:

- Install Gentoo with stage 1

- get it work

- compile kernel with mwave module support

- # emerge mwave

- edit devfsd config (adding "REGISTER misc/mwave$ ....." and "UNREGISTER misc/mwave$ .....)

- edit /etc/modules/autoload.d/2.6 :

       mwave mwave_3780i_irq=10 mwave_3780i_io=0x0130 mwave_uart_irq=3 mwave_uart_io=0x2f8

- # modprobe mwave (module loading without any problems)

- # setserial /dev/ttyS1 autoconfig

- # emerge wvdial

- # touch /etc/wvdial.conf

- # wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

Wvdialconf cannot find any modems on /dev/ttyS1 

What am i doing wrong ?

May be i need additional steps to run mwavem ?

Thanks for help !

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## bingobob

I would REALLY like to get this to work too on my IBM thinkpad 600. I am losing broadband in a week or two and need dialup on this laptop.

I will follow our steps also...

1st problem !!

```

emerge -p mwave

These are the packages that I would merge, in order:

Calculating dependencies   

emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "mwave".

laptop root #
```

errr wats with that ?

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## LinuxAdmin

 *bingobob wrote:*   

> I would REALLY like to get this to work too on my IBM thinkpad 600. I am losing broadband in a week or two and need dialup on this laptop.
> 
> I will follow our steps also...
> 
> 1st problem !!
> ...

 

Sorry, but the package name is "mwavem"

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## Gentoo User

For those people, who still use this 'historic' hardware and need the ACP modem, I am glad to give you some hints on how to resolve the problem.  

After you have installed the net-dialup/mwavem package, your first trouble is usually loading the mwave module that is responsible for the kernel side of the job [Device drivers - > Character Devices - > ACP Modem (Mwave) support (compile this as a module)]. The module usually can't be loaded because of the wrong irq settings, but there is a workaround.

To ensure the concurrent operation of  pcmcia and mwave drivers one should uncomment the following line in the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:

```

exclude irq 3  /* remove # here*/

```

Another problem may be a network card trying to take irq 10, so add the following line to the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:

```

exclude irq 10

```

According to the ACP-modem Mini-HOWTO that is included in the portage HOWTO set, the following command has experimentally been identifed to work, using /dev/ttyS1 for the modem device:

```

/* insmod is replaced with modprobe */

# modprobe mwave mwave_3780i_irq=10 mwave_3780i_io=0x0130 mwave_uart_irq=3 mwave_uart_io=0x2f8

```

Now, after the command has been entered the module should be loaded but not used. To make use of it one is to start the user level application. That is what net-dialup/mwavem does, well, its mwavem command, to be more specific.

Usually, this command has no effect beacuse of the following. During the module loading the /dev/mwave node is automatically created. This device is used by the mwavem application to make the further use of the kernel module mwave. Oops! Here comes the mistake in the configuration file /etc/mwavem.conf  as of July 31, 2005. 

It has 

```

DEVICE=/dev/modems/mwave

```

which is a mismatch. So, it is necessary to modify this entry by writing down the correct device:

```

DEVICE=/dev/mwave

```

Now, one should do

```

user@myhost # setserial /dev/ttyS1 autoconfig

```

and, then

```

user@myhost # mwavem

```

Once this all done, the ACP modem should be ready for use. You can check it with lsmod command that should show the mwave module used by something non-zero.

You could test the modem with the wvdial program:

```

user@myhost # wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

```

Hopefully, this information would be helpful for someone.

Rgds

Gentoo User

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## haylocki

Thanks a lot!  

Following your instructions my Thinkpad 770ED modem started working straight away

Though I do have one question how do I enable the modem IR and serial port all at the same time ?

They all share irq's 3 & 4

Cheers Ian

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## Gentoo User

Hello Ian !

I have been away for some time. I am glad you succeeded in making it work  :Smile: 

You see, this IBM bios seems to cause the problem with the correct irq sharing, that's why I don't think I should be positive regarding your question. The modem driver neither detects nor resolves hardware conflicts. Anyway, what do you get when you try to use all these devices at the same time (I assume you have compiled everything correctly)?

Rgds

Gentoo User

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## Gentoo User

Ian,

I am not really sure if this will help, 

but try to disable "Quick Boot" option in the bios, if you have it enabled.

Rgds

Gentoo User

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## haylocki

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I have not been able to enable all the devices at the same time as I have been using PS2.EXE to configure my thinkpad, 

and this does not allow all the devices to be enabled at the same time.

I did try using tpctl but it failed to run on my thinkpad.

As I don't use the IR port anyway, it doesn't really matter, I was just curious if it was possible to use all the devices at the same time, because I can't believe they have to change bios settings to get it to work in windows.

Cheers Ian

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## Lance

Thanks! Works for me!

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## Lance

It would by ideal if somebody can write an service to automate the process, say /etc/init.d/mwaved  :Smile: 

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