US Robotics 5610 not working

[Bill Barmettler]

Binary package hint: gnome-ppp

I'm trying to connect with a US Robotics 5610B. I have two of them. I'm an old hand at Linux and dial-up; have four USR 5686 externals and go online daily with one or more externals. ISP is frys.com, it works with Linux.

I can get online with the 5610B, but it's not simple.
- Using terminal, sudo wvdial has to probe ports every time. It finds the USR 5610 at ttyS1 and dials out.
- Using terminal and pppconfig, I either have to rebuild the dialer and ask it to find the modem, or I can just keep typing "pon", then "plog" then "poff" three or four times. I get error messages about device ttyS1 locked by pid ###, then suddenly it connects.
- Using gnome-ppp, it never finds the modem at all, until I use either of the above methods, then close that dialer, then start gnome-ppp and it will dial.

If I shut off the PC, or even close gnome-ppp and restart it, the modem disappears again and I have to run either wvdial or gnome-ppp to reacquire. A couple of threads I started...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1399314
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1397947

This is on Karmic. I have a Jaunty PC if someone wants me to try it there.
gnome-ppp version 0.3.23-1 ubuntu2

This may not be a gnome-ppp bug, but I didn't know what else to do.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Feb 5 12:43:59 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Package: gnome-ppp 0.3.23-1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-ppp
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic i686

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Could you try uninstalling the modemmanager package and rebooting...in karmic it ties up the serial ports it finds.

[Bill Barmettler (bpbar)]

Marc Deslauriers wrote:
> Could you try uninstalling the modemmanager package and rebooting...in
> karmic it ties up the serial ports it finds.
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-ppp (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
Hi, Marc -
Thanks for writing. I thought the modemmanager problem only came up
when USB ports were used? I'll try what you suggest.

[Bill Barmettler (bpbar)]

Marc Deslauriers wrote:
> Could you try uninstalling the modemmanager package and rebooting...in
> karmic it ties up the serial ports it finds.
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-ppp (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
Marc, I forgot to mention that the internal 5610 didn't work with a PC
that had 9.04 installed either. It worked fine with Puppy, and I'm told
by a forum member that PCLOS detected his 5610 without any hassles but I
haven't tried that yet.

Althouhg I know very little about Ubuntu's inner workings, it appears to
be related to permissions. I can dial out with the 5610 using sudo
wvdial, or by typing "sudo pon", but not "pon". I've set up pppconfig
plenty of times using an external serial USR 5686 modem but never came
across that problem once the modem was configured.

The other weird thing is Gnome-ppp would say "device is busy" until I'd
gone online using "sudo pon" or sudo wvdial, then I could disconnect and
Gnome-ppp would see the modem. If I shut the PC off and restarted
Gnome-ppp was once again unable to find the modem.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Hmm...that's odd. The "device is busy" had to do with Karmic's modemmanager package that took control of the serial ports and never let them go. If your computer is running Karmic now, let's try and debug it with Karmic.

[Bill Barmettler (bpbar)]

Marc Deslauriers wrote:
> Hmm...that's odd. The "device is busy" had to do with Karmic's
> modemmanager package that took control of the serial ports and never let
> them go. If your computer is running Karmic now, let's try and debug it
> with Karmic.
>
>
Our main desktop PC is running Jaunty with a USR 5686E serial external.
I have the Karmic PC near by, and it's not the PC we rely on for
day-to-day activities. So I'll remove modemmanager on the Karmic PC,
then shut it off, restart, and see what happens.

I'll probably do the above before hearing back from you, but I'll ask
now and that way maybe we can save a step or two. Would you suggest
wiping pppconfig clean, and creating a new configuration from scratch?
What about wvdial?

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Yes, let's start from scratch.

1- Remove modemmanager (sudo dpkg -P modemmanager)
2- Make sure your user is in the "dip" group
3- Make sure /etc/wvdial.conf is basically empty
4- Make sure you don't have a ~/.wvdialrc file
4- Make sure you don't have a ~/.wvdial.conf file
5- start gnome-ppp from the command line with your user's privileges (not from root)
6- Try and make it detect your model and dial

Paste whatever output that generates here.

Thanks!

[Bill Barmettler (bpbar)]

Marc Deslauriers wrote:
> Yes, let's start from scratch.
>
> 1- Remove modemmanager (sudo dpkg -P modemmanager)
> 2- Make sure your user is in the "dip" group
> 3- Make sure /etc/wvdial.conf is basically empty
> 4- Make sure you don't have a ~/.wvdialrc file
> 4- Make sure you don't have a ~/.wvdial.conf file
> 5- start gnome-ppp from the command line with your user's privileges (not from root)
> 6- Try and make it detect your model and dial
>
> Paste whatever output that generates here.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
Uh-oh.
I'm in over my head with your instructions. I apologize for my ignorance.

#2 - I did the sudo adduser ***** dip thing, so I assume I'm in dip.
Correct? I don't know where to look to find out for sure...

#3 - just "sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf" and delete everything in the
file, correct?

#4 and #4a - If I do have those files, what would be the commands to
delete them? Or can I open them with sudo gedit and just delete the
contents?

#5 - Start gnome-ppp from command line? How do I do that?

I've been dinking with Linux for several years, and I'm still horribly
unfamiliar with root/user/ etc. In other words, if you could please
take the time to tell me what I have to enter, I can parrot someone
else's commands. But I'm not good at figuring out from scratch what to
do...

#6 - You're suggesting going straight to Gnome-ppp? We skip pppconfig
and wvdial? I'm cool with that, just want to make sure...

I'll fire the Karmic PC back up and see how much of your instructions I
can muddle thru on my own.

Thanks again

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Don't apologize :)

2- Sure, that will work. If you want to make sure, open Applications/Accessories/Terminal and type "groups". That will show you what groups you are in.

3- do "sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf" and make it look like this:
[Dialer Defaults]
Phone =
Username =
Password =
New PPPD = yes

4- You can do "rm ~/.wvdialrc ~/.wvdial.conf", or you can simply go to Places/Home Folder, click View/Show Hidden Files, and simply delete them from that window.

5- open Applications/Accessories/Terminal and type "gnome-ppp". This will leave the terminal open that you can cut & paste from.

6- yep, gnome-ppp should just work for you without doing anything else.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-ppp (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]