[ale] isapnp modem set-up

[Joseph A. Knapka]

[I'm cc'ing this to ALE so that someone can catch me if
I tell you to do something really stupid.]

Sage wrote:
> 
>> OK, don't be too hasty here. Does the modem have actual switches or
>> jumpers on it with which you can set the IRQ etc? If so then it's
>> NOT PnP
> 
> It can be configured with jumpers for PnP, the ttyS and for setting the IRQ. However, the table on the card doesn't always jive with the table in the booklet. Yet another oint of confusion. Gad.

Could be worse. So here's what you want to do:

(1) Before installing the modem, login to your machine
and look at /proc/interrupts, and pick an unused interrupt that your
modem can be configured to. If there isn't one you'll have to
disable one of your onboard serial ports in the BIOS, which
is quite easy to do, but don't worry about it yet. Configure
the modem to be non-PnP and to use the interrupt you picked.

(2) Hopefully your modem will let you configure it to any COMn
port, 1 thru 4. (If not we're back to fiddling with the BIOS.)
Set the modem to be COM3 (ttyS2).

(3) Shut everything down, install the modem in the machine,
reboot.

(4) Login as root and run

setserial /dev/ttyS2 irq <IRQ chosen in step 1>

Now you should be able to start minicom or whatever and talk
to your modem on /dev/ttyS2. Once you have that working,
set up PPP etc. You can add the setserial command to the
appropriate startup script to make the modem work upon
reboot. (On slackware I'd add it to /etc/rc.local, but
I don't know about RedHat etc.)

If any of the above is unclear or not possible for you to
actually do, let me know.

-- Joe Knapka
"It was just a maddened crocodile hidden in a flower bed. It
could have happened to anyone." -- Pratchett
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