Re: tlug: PCMCIA modem cards

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

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tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
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>>>>> "Alan" == Alan B Stone <stoneab@example.com> writes:

    Alan> I'm trying to setup a notebook that has a PCMCIA card modem.
    Alan> I've never worked with PCMCIA with Linux, so could someone
    Alan> please tell me how I go about setting it up so that when I
    Alan> use my dialing script and call on the /dev/modem it defaults
    Alan> to the PCMCIA modem?

I don't know squat about dialup with Linux (I complain about
Tsukuba-Dai's "information bikepath" but it's faster than analog phone 
and it's free).  So you're on your own once you get to PPP.

But the PCMCIA part is transparent as long as Linux supports your
card.  You just tell the distribution's setup utility you want to use
PCMCIA, and which driver, and the rest is basically transparent.  At
least that was my experience with Debian.  (The reason I originally
went Debian was that the RedHat "PowerLinux" set wouldn't allow both
FTP and PCMCIA in the installation process due to a menu snafu, and
since my ethercard was PCMCIA I was hosed.  I've been assured this has
been fixed in more recent RedHat sets, since you seem to be a RedHat
kinda guy.)

PCMCIA seems to be sort of like PCI, except it's notebook-oriented: it
figures out a lot of the internal traffic control for you, so you
don't need to deal with it.

Main problem is recognizing the PCMCIA interface (there are two main
chipsets and the kernel driver modules are different).  You shouldn't
have to do anything more for a modem, these are bog standard.  My
PCMCIA modem is a 3Com ether/modem combo so it needs a special driver,
but the modem part seems separate from the ether driver which also
works for non-modem versions as I recall.  I've never tried the modem
without the ether driver installed so I'm not sure, but I think it
would probably work as a modem without the ether driver.

If you've got the docs for the PCMCIA interface in your box, it should 
tell you which chipset and you're home.

HTH

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tel: +81 (298) 53-5091;  Fax: 55-3849              turnbull@example.com
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