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View Full Version : Modem Is Busy error Message in k. verson 2.6



sakiZ
12-09-2004, 07:15 PM
I just installed Knoppix to my hard drive and I am even more impressed with it than I was when it was running off the CD.
I think it is just revolutionary to have a live CD that you can install and use the same CD as a rescue disk.

If Microsoft offered the same thing in Windows, it would have a fresh round of billions coming in. But then they don't think outside the box. So that ain't going to happen.

By the way, I used a utility called Bootpart to get my dual boot install to work with XP. It is a breeze to use and automatically puts a line in your boot.ini menu. No typing needed!!!!

Anyway there are a couple of problems I have to iron out to complete the install.

In k. version 2.4.27 I have no sound. In version 2.6.7 I have sound (Yahoo!) BUT the modem doesn't work. When I try to dial out I get a message "Modem is Busy". The modem does work in k. version 2.4.27. but there is no sound.

With no other problems that I can see in k. version 2.6.7 I would love to get this modem kink ironed out. It is an old Cardinal 28.8 winmodem. Pretty generic really. Our phone lines are pretty crappy where I live so I never upgraded modems. No need.

Anyone out there have an idea about what is going on and how to fix it?

I would even just go buy another modem to get this working.

sakiZ

sakiZ
01-10-2005, 06:12 PM
I found this in an article on solving Linux modem problems:

"Modem is busy"

What this means depends on what program sent it. The modem could actually be in use (busy). Another cause reported for the SuSE distribution is that there may be two serial drivers present instead of one. One driver was built into the kernel and the second was a module.

In kppp, this message is sent when an attempt to get/set the serial port "stty" parameters fails. (It's similar to the "Input/output error" one may get when trying to use "stty -F /dev/ttySx"). To get a few of these stty parameters, the true address of the port must be known to the driver. So the driver may have the wrong address. The setserial" command will display what the driver thinks but it's likely wrong in this case. So what the "modem busy" often means is that the serial port (and thus the modem) can't be found.

If you have a pci modem, then use one of these commands: lspci, or cat /proc/pci, or dmesg to find the correct address and irq of the modem's serial port. Then check to see if "setserial" shows the same thing. If not, you need to run a script at boot-time which contains a setserial command that will tell the driver the correct address and irq. The reason that the driver has it wrong may be due to failure of the kernel to understand the lspci data correctly. You might notice this in a boot-time message.

Now I just have to figure out how what the nitty gritty is in terms of solving this on my own box.

sakiZ