modem busy

[mabulajoe]

I am using using mandrake 7.0, U.S. Robotics 56k FAX INT PnP modem. When setting up internet I query modem and get message "Modem Busy". How can get modem to work?

[JMark]

That sounds alot like the error I got when I first installed Linux on my computer. It turned out that my modem was a winmodem, which means that the manufacturer decided to save some money and leave off a few chips from the modem and use emualating software in windows instead. Anything for a Buck!. Anyhow, find out some specifics about your modem, the main thing that will tell you if it will work with linux in my experience is wether or not it has jumpers on the modem for switching the comm port, irq, dma settings. If this is the case, then It will work. If not your depending on some user loaded driver to "govern" the modem. Good Luck!

Hope all this babble helped in some way.

[BassTboneGuy]

First thing I'd check is this:
Go to a bash prompt
su to root
type setserial /dev/ttyS? where the ? is the com port your modem would be under dos/windoze (ttyS1=COM2)
If it comes back and says UART: UNKNOWN, change the UART to 16550A.
setserial /dev/ttyS? UART 16550A
then try the modem again.

I had the same problem with my USR modem. I had to do a bunch of CLI setup stuff to get it to work. You might want to try going through the NHF for ISA PNP modems (if it's an ISA, like mine was...) go to http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/modems/isapnp.html to find it. Then there was another file my dad found at work that I had to go through part of to get it working. I'll post again if I can dig it up somewhere. It mainly dealt with changing (through a CLI) the stuff that RH6.1 does with the PPP setup in X.

I found a page with stuff if it's a PCI modem, too. http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/drivers/cards/modems/index.html

Hope all this junk helps!

[Bomber]

Hey, I had the same problem. Come to find out, my bios had my modem set to irq 15. After I changed theis to irq 4 no more problems.

[Rascal01]

I am extremely new to this Board (first post).

I found this topic in a search and I think it helps me out.

I recently installed Red Hat 6.2 and am using kppp to set up my Internet connection. But I get a "Sorry, the modem doesn't respond" error message.

I set the jumpers on my USRobotics 56k modem (in an ISA slot) to COM3 (what is IRQ?), since my BIOS complained about conflicts with COM1 (my sound card?) and COM2 (don't know what that would be).

I'm more interested in Bomer's comment about bios and IRQ. I briefly checked my bios (on a Gateway PentiumPro) and I don't see anything related to IRQ (just some hard drive priorities).

I'm anxious to get online at home, so if there are additional references or comments, I would appreciate it.

[Chase]

Originally posted by Rascal01:
I am extremely new to this Board (first post).

I found this topic in a search and I think it helps me out.

I recently installed Red Hat 6.2 and am using kppp to set up my Internet connection. But I get a "Sorry, the modem doesn't respond" error message.

I set the jumpers on my USRobotics 56k modem (in an ISA slot) to COM3 (what is IRQ?), since my BIOS complained about conflicts with COM1 (my sound card?) and COM2 (don't know what that would be).

I'm more interested in Bomer's comment about bios and IRQ. I briefly checked my bios (on a Gateway PentiumPro) and I don't see anything related to IRQ (just some hard drive priorities).

I'm anxious to get online at home, so if there are additional references or comments, I would appreciate it.


Well, if it's set to COM 3, it's sharing an IRQ with COM 1 (irq 4), however, it's addresses are different. Unless your using one of your serial ports, I would set the modem to COM1, and then disable that serial port in the bios.

[mychl]

IRQ = Interupt Request, its like a flag that hardware puts up to get the attention of the cpu etc...

COM ports are used for communications devices, your sound card is probably in a PCI slot, which is different from a COM port.

Good Luck

[Rascal01]

Thanks Chase. But isn't COM1 supposed to be the mouse? I've since learned COM1 and COM2 are often taken.

Also, I don't have a /proc/serial file. Some suggestions here used that to gather information, but I don't seem to have that file. :confused:

Also, what is better, manually set the jumpers on the modem to a COM port, or put it back to the PNP mode?