[lug] Partitioning and modem problems

[Wayde Allen]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Mike McCallister wrote:

> First, I had left 10GB (of my single Western Digital 20GB drive) for Linux 
> partitions. I asked the Corel install program to use and format all the 
> free space on the drive. It made a 1.7GB partition for itself and a 125MB 
> swap space, but left the remaining ~8.3GB alone. I can't seem to make any 
> new ext2 partitions.

It looks like you are trying to make too many primary partitions.
Remember that you can only have four.

> hda1: Starts on Cyl 1, Ends on 374. Blocks: 3004125+. ID: b. Win95/FAT32 
> (the Windows C: drive)

This is the first primary partition.

> hda2: 1678-2482, Blocks: 6466162+. ID: f. Win95 Extended (LBA) PM created

This looks like an extended partition.
 
> hda3: (Boot partition) 375-598. Blocks: 1799280. ID: 83 Linux Native

This is your second primary partition.

> hda4: 599-614. Blocks: 128520. ID: 82. Linux Swap (created by Corel)

This is your third primary partition.

> hda5: (my Windows D: partition in the DOS extended part). 1678-2431. 
> Blocks: 6056473+. ID: b. Win95/FAT32

Another extended partition.

> hda6: (Windows E:, FAT16). 2432-2482. Blocks: 409626. ID: 6. DOS 16-bit >=32MB.

Here is your fourth primary partition.  After this, you can't make any
more.

> When FDisk verifies the partition table, it reports 17077281 unallocated 
> sectors. Physically these sectors are located between hda4 and the DOS 
> extended partition (hda2/hda5). Is this my problem??

I don't think this is the problem, but it is odd.  I think you need to
rethink your partitioning scheme so that you only have four primary
partitions.  For example, just use one primary partition for Win98 and
subdivide that with extended partitions.  Then use one for your Linux
swap, one for your Linux root, and the last one for your Linux /usr
directory.

> The other problem is getting the internal modem to work.

Well ... that is the beginning of your problem <grin>.  I don't much like
troubleshooting internal modems.

> This is a brand new Dell system. When I ordered it about three months
> ago, I confirmed with the guy that this was a hardware-based modem, and
> that it would work with Linux. I've since double-checked with the Dell
> website and they also assure me that my modem will work with Linux.

OK, this all sounds good.

> I also downloaded a Red Hat modem driver (yes, I recognize that the
> driver may not work with the Debian-based Corel distro).

I'd be a bit surprised if the driver is that distribution specific.

> Windows Device Manager reports that the modem is a USRobotics 56K Voice
> PCI (and I know that PCI modems can be problematic). The Dell spec sheet
> calls it a 3Com PCI Telephony modem--now that I look at it again, this
> is also a bad sign.

I use a USRobotics 56K external modem on my machine without any problems.

One thought that comes to mind would be to open the box and see what is
written on the card.  You could then check the Linux hardware
compatibility list to see if this hardware is mentioned. 

> The bottom line is that 
> every time KPPD queries the modem, "Sorry, modem is busy" is the reply.

This sounds like the modem is either locked, or you have an I/O conflict
in the system somewhere.  I'd check the default I/O settings for the
device driver you are using, it may be that your card is not set to the
default values, and you will need to tell the driver what memory address
and irq to use.  I'd also try accessing the modem using a terminal program
such as minicom.  That way you can eliminate all of the ppp processing and
just concentrate on getting a working communication pathway to the modem.
Also, have you checked your system log files to see if there are any
messages there that might give you a clue?  You'd want to look for
messages from the driver trying to load and initialize as well as those
from the kpppd queries.

Good luck!

- Wayde
  (wallen at boulder.nist.gov)