[vox-tech] Debian configuration: X and modem and zip

[Rick Moen]

Quoting myself, to clear up a couple of points:

> The default installer for Debian Woody's extremely conservative in its
> choice of, well, pretty much all software.  By the way, if you took the
> path of least resistance with it, you would have gotten a trailing-edge
> 2.2.x kernel.  (Type "uname -r" to find out.)  You have to pick the
> "bf24" boot flavour on the second screen to overcome that default and
> get a somewhat reasonable 2.4.x installation kernel.  You might want to
> fire up "aptitude" and pick a more reasonable kernel-image-2.4.* kernel
> package, to install from your Woody CD(s).

As a further comment, regardless of whether you use the default 2.2 boot
flavour or optional 2.4 boot flavour installation kernel during
installation, the Debian installer's designers kind of assumed everyone
would figure out that they are _not_ intended to keep using that kernel
after installation ends, but are supposed to pick a suitable
kernel-image-* package for long-term use.  Among other things, that lets
you decide 1. which kernel release you want, 2. compiled with what CPU
optimisation (386, 486, 586, 686, Athlon, etc.), 3. whether you
need/want SMP support, and 4. whether you want huge quantities of driver
modules.

Problem is, people tend not to realise that, so "dpkg -l | grep
kernel-image" returns null on their systems because they've _never_
picked a kernel and are still running the installer's kernel -- which
is old, perfunctory, and has security holes that never get fixed by
Debian Security Team updates because the package system doesn't even
know you have a kernel at all.

The (beta) installer for Sarge finally fixes this (I hear) by prompting
the user to pick a kernel package.

> You will _also_ need kernel support (the agpgart driver, and optionally
> the dri driver if you want 3D support) for this and other embedded Intel
> video chipsets -- on any Linux distribution.  That's one reason you'll
> want to replace your (probable) 2.x kernel, right there.
                                  ^^^

Meant to say "2.2.x".

> Warning:  If you install or remove PCI devices, you might find that your
> setserial command has become dysfunctional, because the PCI controller
> chip has reshuffled its assignments of I/O base addresses and IRQs.  So,
> you'd then have to debug and fix your script, all over again.  Welcome
> to the fun world of PCI modems.)

I used to have a clever little script to compensate for this by parsing
the output of "lspci" (using awk) for the current information at each
boot-up, and adjusting the setserial command accordingly -- but it was
just for one particular US Robotics manual.

But that reminds me that, as others have said, too, the output of
"lspci -v" should tell the tale.

> 3.  Fire up minicom (a simple terminal program).  Type "ATH1" to see if
> the modem replies.

Actually, the best modem command to use for this is "ATE1", parseable as
"Attention modem:" ("AT") Please turn on ("1") echo-to-screen of your
response to commands ("E").  This means you'll see the modem's "OK"
response (if you're talking to it on the right port at the right speed)
even if, for some odd reason, someone's disabled its willingness to
reply to commands.

-- 
Cheers,      "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first
Rick Moen     woman she meets, and then teams up with three complete strangers
rick at linuxmafia.com       to kill again."  -- Rick Polito's That TV Guy column,
              describing the movie _The Wizard of Oz_