pcmcia modem

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

a.shterenlikht at umist.ac.uk wrote:

>Hi
>
>I recently installed FreeBSD 5.2.1 on Compaq Armada 1700. I have a 
>pcmcia modem (Psion gold card WAN Global PC Card 56 k+ Fax Combine iT).
>
>  
>
Please refer technical questions to the questions list, "freebsd-questions@
freebsd.org", where the readership is large enouch and experienced enough
for adequate peer review.

>1. Is this not a winmodem?
>  
>
No idea; however, it does appear to be detected in the below quoted
dmesg(8) output, so maybe we could say no ... but sio(4)'s manpage says:

                " The driver supports controller based PCI modems.  The 
3Com
                    FaxModem PCI and the Advantec 56k Voice Messaging
                    PCI FaxModem are the only cards supported.  WinModems,
                    softmodems, hfc modems and any other modems that aren't
                    controller based are not supported."

Now, that sounds as if it won't work, doesn't it?

>2. How do I make it work? I'm not sure if it is detected or not. I get 
>the lines
>
>sio4: <Psion Gold Card 56K Combine iT> at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 11 
>function 0 config 5 on pccard0
>sio4: type 16550A
>sio4: unable to activate interrupt in fast mode - using normal mode
>
>from the dmesg. Does it mean the card is properly detected.
>
>  
>
Seems likely that it's "detected", but see above.  The question might be 
whether
or not the manpage is out of date in regard to FBSD 5.X.

If it has a Lucent chipset, then possibly the ltmdm port 
(/usr/ports/comms/ltmdm)
would help you.

>3. If it is detected, do I need to start a daemon for it?
>
>  
>
That depends --- there are two ways of using PPP (point-to-point protocol),
one involves a daemon, the other doesn't.  I don't use a daemon, myself.

I'd definitely recommend reading the handbook (www.freebsd.org/handbook)
chapter on PPP.  It appears to me that all you need to do in regard to 
the hardware
itself is to make sure that PPP knows to use this device in 
/etc/ppp/ppp.conf.  However,
a good working knowledge of PPP (gleaned from the handbook) will be of 
great value
to you in setting up and maintaining a link with your modem.

My $0.02,

Kevin Kinsey
DaleCo, S.P.

>thanks
>anton
>  
>