Intrepid Network Manager Lacks Dial-up & Work-Around
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
network-manager (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
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Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Binary package hint: network-manager
The lack of dial-up support is a huge handicap for Ubuntu in attracting new users. Ubuntu should be a natural for millions of dial-up people because of its lean resource requirements,-- and especially for those who dread tying up their lines with Vista updates/SPs. While there was grudging dial-up support in Feisty and Gutsy, the utter lack of it now with Intrepid is preventing millions of people here in Canada and elsewhere from switching to Ubuntu. Let's deal with the Intrepid/Ubuntu 8.10 challenges,-- and I'm being positive here in the fact I'm writing on an Intrepid installation via dial-up on a Winmodem, through Gnome-PPP, and without having Firefox "work Offline" issues. While I've done this on multiple machines, the steps to get here asks too much of many users,-- and therefore I'm urging that the dialup oversight be fixed, possibly by giving the option of using the earlier NM or by incorporating the earlier features.
Work-Arounds for Dial-up with Intrepid
1. The lack of support for dial-up is one NM issue, but the other is its interference with Firefox in causing the "Work Offline" annoyance. Fixes for the Firefox annoyance range from
(a) entering about:config in the Firefox address line and toggling the last field of browser.offiine, browser.
(b) to the more extreme but powerful one of editing of NetworkManager.conf as:
sudo gedit /etc/dbus-
and replacing all instances of "allow" with "deny". When in doubt, save back-up copies of any files you experiment with. My experience is that the effectiveness of (a) seems to be mobo-specific, while (b) is brute-force-
2. Now, while many dial-up people will simply pack it in on Intrepid, and either stay with an earlier version or leave Ubuntu shaking their heads, here are the steps on how to do it for many winmodems:
(a) Check your modem chipset. If it's a Conexant marked with HSF, then you can either download and purchase a kernel-specific driver from Linuxant, or hybridize the necessary driver from Linuxant's free version hsfmodem-
Since Dell doesn't yet supply the Intrepid HSF driver, here are the steps for hybridizing to a full-speed driver:
(i) Download the source Hardy hsfmodem-
(ii) Remove modules/imported from the Linuxant source directory.
sudo rm -r hsfmodem-
(iii) Substitute modules/imported from the Dell Hardy driver source directory to make the hybrid.
sudo cp -r hsfmodem-
(iv) Change to the Linuxant source and install.
cd hsfmodem-
sudo make install
(v) Finally, configure.
sudo hsfconfig
I found it was necessary just to hit enter at the prompts. Then restart. The installation can be checked with
sudo hsfconfig --info
and the command set (including driver removal) is listed with
sudo hsfconfig --help
(b) Set up wvdial to update Add/Remove programs:
sudo wvdialconf
sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf
Check and edit Username, Password, Phone, and the modem address (typically Modem=/dev/ttySHSF0 for these modems).
You can now dial and update (and access Firefox) after starting it in terminal with
sudo wvdial
(c) Add Gnome-PPP from Add/Remove>All available applications. Gnome-PPP will only run from root without changing permissions.
(d) Gnome-PPP permissions:
First, System>
Then
sudo chown root:dip /usr/sbin/pppd
sudo chmod 4754 /usr/sbin/pppd
sudo chmod 777 /etc/ppp/
sudo chmod 777 /etc/ppp/
sudo chmod 777 /etc/ppp/peers
With these changes, Intrepid works nicely on dial-up.
Having recommended earlier Ubuntu versions for dial-up people experiencing frustration in the MS world, I'd like to be able to do the same for Intrepid.
Richard
I got Gnome-ppp working in Jaunty (changed froup to dip and permissions to 660 on /etc/ppp/ pap-secrets and chap-secrets), but applications still would not use the dialup connection. Modifying the .conf file as you suggested worked although it neutered NetworkManager. (It doesn't know what happened to it.) I will be testing it in a mixed wired, wireless, dialup environment.
Thanks, at least I can do dialup now, and if I need to I can change .conf back.