# ltmodem woes (FIXED)

## jlpence

Before I begin - forgive me for not pasting console snippets to help along any tech support. I have to switch hard drives in and out of my machine right now just to get online.) :(

I was using SuSE 7.3, got tired of upgrading that dinosaur by hand, switched to Gentoo. Thing is, I use a Lucent LT Winmodem, which is my only piece of "problem" hardware on any distro.

I installed Gentoo just fine with a stage 3 install. From there I installed ppp, reiserfsprogs, and a few other packages on the Universal CD that shouldn't matter. To prepare to get my modem working I installed pkgconfig, setserial, and PCI Utils. Since wvdial lists a crapload of dependencies that I don't need right now, I installed wvstreams and wvdial from source: ./configure && make && make install, a plain vanilla install.

I downloaded all of the ltmodem distfiles and tossed them into /usr/portage/disfiles. After emerge ltmodem, nothing happened. I can't modprobe ltserial && modprobe ltmodem, as it says "ltmodem not found!" or "lt_modem not found!" Hmm. Before I wiped my drive for Gentoo I saved ltmodem-2.6-alk-7 to one of my backup CDs, so I'll use that. I know for a fact that this works with my modem, as those exact same drivers got my modem working in SuSE with a hand compiled 2.6.11.7 kernel just a week ago. 

Made sure I got all the ppp and serial stuff set in my kernel. Yes, I do.

Unpackage modem. Edited makefile, make, mkdir /lib/modules/2.6.something/other, cp *ko /lib/modules/2.blahblah/other

Added some alias lines in /etc/modules.d/ppp, modules-config

Maked the nodes /dev/ttsLT0 and /dev/ttsLTM0, symlinked /dev/modem to /dev/ttsLTM0

depmod -a

modprobe ltserial && modprobe ltmodem

wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

Wvdialconf says that it cannot set serial port (or something to that effect) when it looks at ttsLTM0 and ttsLT0. /dev/tts/LT0 doesn't show up, as I don't have devfs installed or compiled into my kernel.

I've been mucking with this for the past three days and I just can not get this to work! I can see the modem right there on the serial port, but damned if I can get the driver to work. Thing is, it worked perfectly just a few days ago in SuSE, so I must be missing _something_. 

Does anybody have any ideas? My forehead is getting tired from me banging my head against the keyboard. :( (Other than this, Gentoo has kicked copius amounts of ass. Just this stupid little modem that keeps me from falling in love with it.)

Thankya.Last edited by jlpence on Tue May 24, 2005 3:34 am; edited 1 time in total

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## NeddySeagoon

jlpence,

If you don't have the modem entries in /dev, then your udev rules are probaby missing or incorrect.

You can create the /dev/entries by hand as a get-u-going (use mknod) or read up on udev rules here   http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml

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## jlpence

Thanks, I think this may work. Now booting into Gentoo to see if it does...

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## jlpence

Nope. Emerged udev and its dependencies. Made sure my modprobe.conf file was okay, depmod -a, modprobe ltserial, modprobe ltmodem, and... nothing. 

I did manage to save some info to a floppy. 

```
$ ls -l /dev/modem /dev/ttyLTM0

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      7 May 21 05:46 /dev/modem -> ttyLTM0

crw-rw----  1 root root 62, 64 May 21 05:45 /dev/ttyLTM0
```

lsmod:

```
Module                  Size  Used by

ltserial                9872  0 

ltmodem               555504  1 ltserial
```

setserial info on both /dev/modem /dev/ttyLTM0:

```
/dev/ttyLTM0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x1000, IRQ: 3
```

my /etc/modules.d/ppp file:

```
alias char-major-108   ppp_generic

alias /dev/ppp      ppp_generic

alias tty-ldisc-3   ppp_async

alias tty-ldisc-13   n_hdlc

alias tty-ldisc-14   ppp_synctty

alias ppp-compress-21   bsd_comp

alias ppp-compress-24   ppp_deflate

alias ppp-compress-26   ppp_deflate

alias net-pf-24      pppoe

alias char-major-62   ltserial

alias /dev/ttsLTM0   ltserial

alias /dev/modem   ltserial

alias /dev/ttsLT0   ltserial

```

Completely lost, here. Everything checks out as it should, but nothing works...?!

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## jlpence

Bump?

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## NeddySeagoon

jlpence,

Silly question time.

Are yiu running the kernel you think you are and did you emerge ltmodem against the right kernel.

Check 

```
uname -a
```

It should give the date and time of the last kernel build. Does it?

If not something went wrong with the build or install.

Check the timestamps in /boot (with /boot mounted) and that the kernel line in grub.conf points to the right kernel.

```
modprobe -l | less
```

 should show your modem modules somewhere.

Does your /usr/src/linux symlink point to the right kernel?

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## jlpence

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> Silly question time.

 Nay, good question. Obvious things like this are the hardest things to hunt down. ;)

Unfortunately, I got only one kernel installed:

```
$ ls -l /boot

total 2011

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       1 May 20 07:25 boot -> .

-rw-r--r--  1 root root     512 May 20 14:16 boot.0300

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 2036267 May 20 08:52 bzImage

drwx------  2 root root   12288 May 20 07:20 lost+found
```

My /usr/src/linux link reflects this:

```
$ ls -l /usr/src/linux

total 1

lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  22 May 20 07:42 linux -> linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r3

drwxr-xr-x  18 root root 712 May 20 18:01 linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r3
```

uname -a:

```
Linux Evolution 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 #1 Fri May 20 08:51:44 CDT 2005 i686 Celeron (Mendocino) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
```

(Evolution being the hostname.) However, upon doing modprobe -l I noticed that there were two copies of ltmodem and ltserial mentioned, one in /lib/modules/2.kern/other and one in /lib/modules/2.kern/ltmodem - the latter being added by emerge ltmodem, the previous being added by me. Also I noticed that there were conf files for ltmodem and ltserial in /etc/modules.d/, so I removed the items and modules created by emerge, and rebooted. modprobe -l still shows two instances of it...? 

Still doesn't work, either.

In my modprobe.conf file I got the following:

```
...crap...

alias char-major-62-* ltserial

alias /dev/ttsLTM0 ltserial

alias /dev/modem ltserial

alias /dev/ttsLT0 ltserial

...more crap..
```

I've been wondering if I need to do something to udev. All I did was emerge it, I didn't edit any files or anything. I... don't know. I'm not a guru on how the kernel interacts with the system.

Anyways, thank you for your help so far and any thoughts by anyone is more than appreciated. I'm off to bake in the 100 degree sun while painting the garage, will be back in ~an hour.

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## NeddySeagoon

jlpence,

Hmm, Notice the times.

```
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 2036267 May 20 08:52 bzImage

drwxr-xr-x  18 root root 712 May 20 18:01 linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r3

Linux Evolution 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 #1 Fri May 20 08:51:44 
```

You are running your only kernel but your tree is timestamped later.

What changed in the kernel tree?

Have you been making modules (other than the ltmodem things) ?

Can you check the timestamp on /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage. It should be May 20 08:52, or very close to that.

I don't know udevv well enogh to comment but if /dev/ltserial exists with major number 62, you are doing OK.

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## jlpence

The times are fine. I built the kernel yesterday in the morning (started with a fresh install to get my modem working after bad modem problems the day before). I then went off to scrape the garage, and when I got back in the evening I began messing with the modem. So yes, those times are correct.

As for the /dev/ltserial thing, I don't have it. I don't remember it being made on the old SuSE install, but then again I never checked so it may have been there. Might be a lead...

(And thank you so much for your time thus far, I really do appreciate it. I almost never ask for help...)

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## jlpence

Bump... looking for info now. Even the wildest ideas are more than welcome.

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## NeddySeagoon

jlpence,

If you don't have a device with major number 62 in your /dev tree somewhere, you have a major problem. The name is not important, since it can be pointed to by a symbolic link. Start with a promising looking symbolic link lke /dev/modem and follow it to the real device file. 

Until the ltmodem modules are loaded, the device may not exist.

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## jlpence

For some odd reason I remembered that there was a minicom clone for GNU/Linux, so I downloaded that. Damn thing dialed my ISP right from the get-go, turns out that the bloody modem worked all along. It seems to be an issue with wvdial and wvdialconf, evidently they don't open the serial port right or something. 

Well, crap. I hate it when inobvious things like this go wrong. :(

Looking for older versions of wvdial. That _should_ work. 

THANK YOU, Neddy. You rock. :)

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