[SOLVED] how to install my Motorola SM56 modem?

[naro59]

Hi!

I'm still new to Linux, actually this is the first time that I'm trying to use it (Mandrake 10.0). Having had much experience with Windows it doesn't seem that complicated once you get into the swing of it. But at least the basic setup should work until I become an "expert" and all these ready-made, easy-to-use managing applications, preincluded drivers and packages, however impressive they seem, can't solve every problem. So I'd like to ask for a little bit of help.

One of the major issues is that my Modem doesn't work, while this is one of the main reasons I've installed Linux (the viruses break down Windows much too often). Of course it should be recognized by the system, but unfortunately this is not that kind of Modem. Nontheless, I downloaded the proper driver from the Motorola site: "sm56-something-.rpm". The guide, also found on that page, says that it includes the compilation stage so after rpm -i sm56... it should work. It puts sm56.ko (driver) to some place, adds the following lines to /etc/modules.conf:

alias char-major-24 sm56
options sm56 country=36 profile=0

and there is a man sm56 which says it should work now and has a detailed list of country codes and something about insmod (which might be the key to the problem but after running "insmod sm56" it returns that there is no such file or directory).
Harddrake2 has the modem listed under Unknown/Other and the Module line says unknown too, and contrary to Windows I can't seem to be able to choose the driver for the card.
After setting up KPPP it sees the modem at either dev/modem or dev/ttyS1 but when I click connect, it shows Modem Ready and then Initializing Modem and there's the end of it, nothing happens. So if anybody can make something out of all this, I'd be very grateful for his help, it would be most important, that the modem works and I can access the Internet. Maybe this can be found in the help section but I've already spent quite a time figuring out this much and it's still not working.

[hard candy]

but after running "insmod sm56" it returns that there is no such file or directory).

Did you reboot? Or maybe try "modprobe sm56" .

[bathory]

It puts sm56.ko (driver) to some place, adds the following lines to /etc/modules.conf:
alias char-major-24 sm56
options sm56 country=36 profile=0

The place must be under /lib/modules/2.6.x (your kernel version) since it's a .ko module. So you must add those 2 lines in your /etc/modprobe.conf and not in /etc/modules.conf (which is for 2.4.x kernels).

[naro59]

added the lines to modprobe.conf, but it's still not working; after running modprobe sm56 nothing happens, but if I run dmesg it shows the following lines in the end:

sm56: no version for "struct_module" found: kernel tainted.
sm56: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
SS_SearchPciDevice: Could not find device using linux API
SS_SearchPciDevice: Could not find device using linux API
Motorola Softmodem: version SM56 Rel. 6.05 Build 02

Can anyone make something out of this?
I know it's nothing good since the kernel's tainted, but what's the solution?

[je_fro]

yeah...modprobe not throwing an error is good.
those lines in dmesg are good.
looks like it searched for the modem and couldn't find it. is it a serial modem or something?

[bathory]

These are just warnings. Run

lsmod

to see if the module is loaded (it should be since there are no errors) and then check to see if the device was created and symlinked to /dev/modem:

ls -l /dev/sm56
ls -l /dev/modem

[naro59]

Thanks for the help!
I don't really know what happend because I haven't really changed
anything but after running lsmod and cheking if /dev/modem is linked
to /dev/sm56 (and before this I had reinstalled the driver to make a
fresh start) the modem started dialing after all

log says:
ATZ
OK
ATM1L3
OK
ATDT{phonenumber}

after this there's a sort of busy signal and nothing happens
after a while it redials

I'm guessing that the problem is still on my side of the connection
because I tried it several times and only a few minutes later I'm
connected and writing from under Windows using the same connection.
I feel like I'm finally coming to the solution, so please help me figure
out this last one.

[naro59]

dialed the wrong number, it works after all

nontheless there's something wrong if I try to modify my Internet settings
through the Control Panel because after it, /dev/modem disappears
and since I don't know better I had to rpm -e sm56 ... and start again from the beggining. But I already see how to set the accounts in KPPP and it's all right that way.

Thanks to everybody for all the help, I can finally say Good bye to all those Windows viruses infiltrating from the Net and crashing the system.