[vox-tech] PPP problems; need help over phone or housecall (Sacramento)

[Dave Margolis]

Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> On Wed 21 Jul 04,  8:15 AM, Dave Margolis <margolid at ecs.csus.edu> said:
> 
>>Henry House wrote:
>>
>>
>>>På tisdag, 20 juli 2004, skrev Dave Margolis:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Bill,
>>>>
>>>>If I remember correctly from some other thread, Margo lives across the 
>>>>street from where I work (CSUS).  If she's got a laptop, she can run over 
>>>>and see me - and at an actual helpdesk!
>>>>
>>>>I wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon or help her after work tonight, 
>>>>but if she can come over here tomorrow morning...
>>>>
>>>>Happen to know what kind of machine she has?  Should I call her, or wait 
>>>>and see if someone else can help her today?
>>>
>>>
>>>If you do help her on behalf of LUGOD, please be sure to use the LERT
>>>Release form. Thanks.
>>>
>>>http://www.lugod.org/documents/releases/lert_release.txt
>>>
>>
>>well I gave her a call just to see if i could point her in the right 
>>direction.  she's using some kind of mini-distribution that runs off a 
>>floppy disk (i don't recall the name).  the nature of her problem is a 
>>little beyond me as she's trying to run ppp via manually configured chat 
>>scripts.
>>
>>i asked her if she could use wvdial (and also mentioned that kppp is 
>>really easy), but she doesn't have the ability to run those types of 
>>programs as long as she's using the floppy distro, which she plans on 
>>using until she's ready to do a regular linux install.  "ready" means 
>>making a successful backup of her dos partition.
>>
>>she had the ppp howto in front of her and i reminded her to check file 
>>permissions/ownership in /etc/ppp which she had already done.
>>
>>i defer this one to anybody who's more familiar with "manual" ppp.
>>
>>dave
> 
> 
> that's how i used to use ppp -- using chat scripts.  way before KDE ever
> came out.  ;)  but i'm a little far away...
> 
> dave, when you say floppy distribution, are you being literal about the
> word "floppy"?  i haven't played with a modem for years, but wouldn't be
> the least surprised if knoppix did a good job in making modem
> connections.  they've done a good job in all other areas!
> 
> i'm picturing her using tom's rescue floppy.  if she's unwilling to
> "upgrade" to a CD based distro, then, well...
> 
> even better, she can turn her system into a real debian based system
> using knoppix as well; no muss, no fuss!
> 
> pete
> 

I did advise her that there are more modern ways to "try" Linux without 
effecting one's hard-drive.  She seemed very commited to the floppy distro 
(and yes from what I could tell she was running it from a floppy).

She says her eventual plan is to install Gentoo, and she seems to have her 
various howto documents and plan of attack in order.