PCTel HSP MicroModem Configuration mini-HOWTO

Sayamindu Dasgupta

 unmadindu_NO_SPAM_@Softhome.net 

Jan Stifter

 j.stifter_NO_SPAM_@medres.ch 

Revision History
Revision 2.02002-03-30
Made changes in the drivers section, other corrections
Revision History
Revision 1.102001-12-04
Cleaning up of sgml by Greg Ferguson, Relicensed under the GFDL, minor corrections
Revision History
Revision 1.00Nov 26th 2001
First Release

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Copyright Information
1.2. Disclaimer
1.3. New Versions
1.4. Credits
1.5. Feedback
1.6. Translations
1.7. Conventions used in this document
2. Purpose of the mini-HOWTO
3. Where to get the drivers
4. Choosing a suitable driver
5. Compiling and installing the drivers
5.1. Installing the 2.2x drivers.
5.2. Installing the pctel-0.9.0 driver
5.3. Installing the pctel-0.8.6 driver
6. Testing the drivers
7. A few other points that must be noted.
7.1. Loading the modules at automatically
7.2. Country codes
7.3. Other options while loading the modules.
7.4. The sequence of loading/unloading the modules.
7.5. Bugs in the pctel-0.9.0 and the 0.8.6 versions.
7.6. Directory of the kernel source files
7.7. PnP BIOS issues
7.8. AMR modems
8. FAQ/Troubleshooting
8.1. Compiling Problems
8.2. Problems while loading the modules.
8.3. General modem based problems.
8.4. I have a problem that is not listed in this section. What do I do?
9. Appendix
9.1. A sample script file to load the modules.
9.2. Web Resources
9.3. Other drivers that are available
9.4. Identifying the chip set of the modem
9.5. GNU Free Documentation License

1. Introduction


1.4. Credits

I am extremely grateful to the howtos_NO_SPAM@kcircle.com list members for their support, especially to USM Bish.

The members of the discuss@linmodems.org list have been very helpful too, specially in the initial phase of the howto-writing. I am also extremely grateful to Phil Richard Burchill, Rajesh Fowkar, KV Pham and Andrew Kar (akar) for their valuable suggestions.

The sgml-stuff has been done with the help of the template written by Stein Gjoen, Gregory Leblanc and Greg Ferguson. I am also indebted to Greg Ferguson for cleaning up the mess i had made with Docbook:).


1.5. Feedback

If you have any comments, criticisms, ideas, additions, corrections, then please do mail them to . But for technical queries, we suggest that you ask at the discuss@linmodems.org mailing list.

NOTE: Please do not mail me with your problems. You will NOT get any answer. For answers ask at discuss@linmodems.org


2. Purpose of the mini-HOWTO

The purpose of this document is to guide you to make your PCTel HSP MicroModem work in linux.

First let me explain what is so "special" about these PCTel modems that made me write this guide.These modems fall in a special class of hardware, specifically made for M$-Windows systems, and have device drivers which are specific for  M$-Windows ...These modems are also called  "Winmodems" and are one of the most troublesome pieces of hardwares for Linux. Most of the winmodems do not work with linux (the manufacturers use patented technologies and so drivers for these modems cannot be developed as Open Source). For a few of these winmodems, drivers have been developed

The PCTel modems belong to this category and fall under linmodems.

NOTE: Though I am referring PCTel modems here, actually PCTel only manufactures the chips for these modems, so if you have say, XXX modem and you get a

00:09.0 Communication controller: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 01)

when you issue the bash$ lspci command, then do not worry, you have what we call a PCTel linmodem.


3. Where to get the drivers

Now let me come to the next obvious question, that is; Where are the drivers??

Well, if you are impatient, and if you have a 2.4x series kernel then go to

http://www.medres.ch/~jstifter/pctel/, and if you are stuck with the older 2.2.x kernels, go to http://modems.dewback.cl (the exact link for the file it self is http://modems.dewback.cl/pctel-2.2.tar.gz )

But there are a number of drivers in both the sites, and you will definitely feel confused..so read on.


4. Choosing a suitable driver

The driver version that you will have to use depends on the kernel version you have. To know your kernel version, you will have to issue the command

uname -r

If you see something like 2.2.x, go to http://modems.dewback.cl and download the pctel 2.2x drivers from the PCTel section of that site.

If you see something like 2.4x, go to http://www.medres.ch/~jstifter/pctel/ and download the pctel 0.9.0 (pctel-0.9.0.tar.gz) drivers from that site.

Warning

NOTE: There has been some complaints of system instability while using the pctel 0.9.0 drivers, if you experience problems, then download the pctel 0.8.6 drivers from http://www.medres.ch/~jstifter/pctel/.

Warning

Also note that only the pctel 0.9.0 drivers have support for the new AMR modems.


5. Compiling and installing the drivers

The first requisite for installation is that you have a kernel source in /usr/src/linux/ (see section 7.6) and it must be configured, that is, you should have done a bash$ make configure and bash$ make dep on it.

While doing these make sure that you have the source for your running kernel...for example, if you are running kernel 2.4.8 and if you have the source for kernel 2.4.9 in /usr/src/linux/, then the drivers would not work.

Moreover, you must configure the kernel with isapnp and pnp support and see to the fact that you don't have a smp/uniprocessor mismatch ( that is, running uniprocessor kernel but having a kernel source with smp support in /usr/src/linux). Also, you will need a kernel which supports loadable modules.

And of course, you need to have gcc installed, check it by issuing the command bash$ gcc -v . If you do not get any errors, the everything is all right


5.1. Installing the 2.2x drivers.

Login as root.

Make sure that you have a 2.2.x kernel with the command bash$ uname -r

Check whether the downloaded files are in your current directory with the

bash$ ls

command. Then unpack the downloaded files with the command

bash$ tar -xzvf pctel-2.2.tar.gz

Once you have unpacked, you will be left with a ~/pctel directory.

Move into that directory with the command

bash$ cd pctel/

There is an (install.sh) installation script that makes the job easier from now on.

Make this script executable with the command

bash$ chmod +x install.sh

Then, just run the script

bash$ ./install.sh

You will see a number of messages fly by as the appropriate device files/nodes are made in the /dev/ directory, the driver files are unpacked and then compiled and loaded into the memory.

Once the process is complete without any error messages (if you get any errors, proceed to the Troubleshooting section), you will find that a new directory called lib/ has been created under directory ~/pctel/. This ~/pctel/lib/ directory contains the drivers/modules that can be loaded into the kernel.

If you move into the ~/pctel/lib/ directory with

bash$ cd ~/pctel/lib/

and do a bash$ ls, you will find two files there, one called pctel.o and the other ptserial.o

These are the two modules that are to be loaded to make the modem work.

To load the modules, you will have to issue the commands

bash$ insmod pctel.o

bash$ insmod ptserial.o

from the ~/pctel/lib/ directory.

(The install.sh script automatically does this, so you don't need to do the insmod part after running the script, but once you reboot, you will have to load the modules by

bash$ cd `your pctel directory`/lib/

bash$ insmod pctel.o

bash$ insmod ptserial.o )


5.2. Installing the pctel-0.9.0 driver

Make sure that you have kernel 2.4.0 or greater by the command

bash$ uname -r

Unpack the downloaded files with the commands

bash$ tar -xzvf 0.9.0.tar

Now you will have a pctel-0.9.0 directory

cd into that with the command

bash$ cd pctel-0.9.0/

Now comes the complicated part.

To proceed further you will have to know what chip set your modem has.See section 9.4 for more information on this.

Once you have got the name of the chip set, just type one of the following commands (depending on the chip set)

If you have a PCT 789 chip set,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=pct789

If you have a CM8738 chip set,

bash$ ./configure -with-hal=cm8738

If you have a chip set integrated with an Intel 810 chip set based motherboard from Intel,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=i810

If you have a chip set integrated in a motherboard from SIS,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=sis

If you have a chip set integrated with an VIA 686a chip set based motherboard ,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=via686a

The configure script will run and a number of messages will fly past. Check for any error messages that may fly past. When you have the prompt again, (and if you have not got any errors), compile the drivers with the command

bash$ make

Then if you do not get any error messages, install the drivers with the command

bash$ make install

(You will have to be logged in as root for performing the last step)

Then just load the drivers with the commands

bash$ insmod pctel

bash$ insmod ptserial

NOTE: These commands can be issued from any directory as the insmod program will automatically find the drivers pctel.o and ptserial.o in /lib/modules/`your kernel version`/misc/ )

Warning

NOTE: Please note that the pctel-0.9.0 drivers are comparatively new, and there has been some complaints of lock ups and system unstabilty while using these drivers. If you experience stabilty problems while using these drivers, please, please revert back to the pctel-0.8.6 drivers.

However, if you have an AMR modem, then you will have to use the 0.9.0 drivers.


5.3. Installing the pctel-0.8.6 driver

Warning

Use this driver only if you experience problems with the pctel-0.9.0 drivers

Make sure that you have kernel 2.4.0 or greater by the command

bash$ uname -r

Unpack the downloaded files with the commands

bash$ tar -xzvf 0.8.6.tar

Now you will have a pctel-0.8.6 directory

cd into that with the command

bash$ cd pctel-0.8.6/

Now comes the complicated part.

To proceed further you will have to know what chip set your modem has.See section 9.4 for more information on this.

Once you have got the name of the chip set, just type one of the following commands (depending on the chip set)

If you have a PCT 789 chip set,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=pct789

If you have a CM8738 chip set,

bash$ ./configure -with-hal=cm8738

If you have a chip set integrated with an Intel 810 chip set based motherboard from Intel,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=i810intel

If you have a chip set integrated with an Intel 810 chip set based motherboard from SIS,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=i810sis

If you have a chip set integrated with an VIA 686a chip set based motherboard ,

bash$ ./configure --with-hal=via686a

The configure script will run and a number of messages will fly past. Check for any error messages that may fly past. When you have the prompt again, (and if you have not got any errors), compile the drivers with the command

bash$ make

Then if you do not get any error messages, install the drivers with the command

bash$ make install

(You will have to be logged in as root for performing the last step)

Then just load the drivers with the commands

bash$ insmod pctel

bash$ insmod ptserial

(these too, like in the case of the pctel-0.9.0 drivers, can be issued from any directory as the insmod program will automatically find the drivers pctel.o and ptserial.o in /lib/modules/`your kernel version`/misc/ )


6. Testing the drivers

There is only one way to check whether the drivers are working or not. You will have to see if your modem is recognized or not. The driver makes a node for your modem at /dev/ttyS15 , no matter what com port it may be in in M$DOS/M$ Windows. /dev/ttyS15 is symlinked to /dev/modem and as most programs search for a modem at /dev/modem first, you will not have to fiddle with the settings/configs of those programs. The program that I use to test my modem in linux is minicom. If you have minicom installed, what you have to do is type

bash$ minicom

in a shell prompt or in a terminal emulator window. If everything is all right, you will see a Initializing modem message for a few seconds and then a screen with a blinking cursor. Just type in ATZ in that screen and hit the enter key. If you see a OK message, then, congratulations, your modem is working in linux. Type in ATI 3 and hit enter and you will see a PCtel HSP56 MicroModem output. If you get a error message, proceed to the troubleshooting section. If everything is all right up to now, you can go ahead to configure your dialer software and connect to the internet.


7. A few other points that must be noted.

Here are a few more points you might find to be of interest/useful.


7.2. Country codes

The ptserial.o driver also lets you specify the country code, though for most situations, the default of USA is all right. If you still want to specify the country code, load the ptserial.o module with the command

bash$ insmod ptserial country_code=x

(where x is the country code you want) The list of country codes with the corresponding country names is listed below.

country_code  country name

1            USA

2            FRANCE

3            GERMANY

4            ITALY

5            SWEDEN

6            UK

7            JAPAN

8            AUSTRALIA

9            SPAIN

10           TAIWAN

11           SINGAPORE

12           KOREA

13           SWITZERLAND

14           NORWAY

15           NETHERLANDS

16           BELGIUM

17           CANADA

18           IRELAND

19           PORTUGAL

20           POLAND

21           HUNGARY

22           FINLAND

23           DENMARK

24           AUSTRIA

25           S.AFRICA

26           CTR21 COUNTRIES

27           CHINA

28           MALAYSIA

29           LUXUMBURG

30           GREECE

31           ICELAND

32           NEW ZEALAND

33           BRAZIL


7.5. Bugs in the pctel-0.9.0 and the 0.8.6 versions.

> There is a serious bug in the drivers for the kernel 2.4x The modem often seems to stop working/hang while dialing out, and you get nothing but a beeeeeeeeee... sound from the modem speaker and later, the dialer gives a message No Carrier and disconnects.

This problem has no real workaround , but sometimes unloading and reloading of the modules work. For that the commands will be (assuming that you have the modules in /lib/modules/'your kernel version`/misc/ )

bash$ rmmod ptserial

bash$ rmmod pctel

bash$ insmod pctel

bash$ insmod ptserial

NOTE:You must exit from your dialer before trying to unload the drivers, otherwise you will get a device or resource busy error.

When the problems become too acute, the only solution seems to be rebooting.

It has been also noticed that sometimes, this problem is ISP dependent, with the problem surfacing when using a particular ISP.


7.6. Directory of the kernel source files

> If you get an error saying /usr/src/linux/include/linux/modversions.h : no such file or directory, look in your /usr/src directory for the kernel source. The default location is /usr/src/linux/ but some distributions may install the files somewhere else.

If you find that the files are somewhere else, say in the directory, /usr/src/myspecialsource/ , do not try to move the files, just create a symbolic link with the command

bash$ ln -s /usr/src/myspecialdirectory/ /usr/src/linux/

NOTE: In case of the PCTel-0.8.6 drivers you can also specify the location of your kernel source by using the option

bash$ --with-kernel-includes=your kernel source directory

during running the configure script.


8. FAQ/Troubleshooting

Here is a set of common problems that you may face, along with their possible solutions.


8.2. Problems while loading the modules.

8.2.1. I get unresolved symbols.... messages while loading the modules
8.2.2. I get an Operation not permitted error while trying to load the drivers

8.3. General modem based problems.

8.3.1. I get a /dev/modem no such device error.
8.3.2. My dialer gives a No Carrier error
8.3.3. I get a No Dialtone message.
8.3.4. I get a Modem Busy error.

8.4. I have a problem that is not listed in this section. What do I do?

The output of the command

bash$ tail /var/log/messages

will give you a lot of information if anything goes wrong The normal output should be something like this

PCTel device[00:09.0](0x48) found "PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 01)", iobase=0xe400, irq=12.
PCTel driver version 0.9.0 [5.05c-4.27.215 (09-14-2001)] (PCT789) (2002-01-31) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled.
PCTel driver built on [Linux 2.4.18 i686 unknown "2.4.18 <132114>"] with gcc-2.96.
ttyS15 at 0xe400 (irq = 12) is a PCTel

Mail the output you get to the list( more on this in section 9.2.2), and wait for a reply.


9. Appendix


9.5. GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.1, March 2000

Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.


1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".

A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.

The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.

The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.

A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output purposes only.

The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.


3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.


4. MODIFICATIONS

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:

  1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.

  2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).

  3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.

  4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

  5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.

  6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.

  7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.

  8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

  9. Preserve the section entitled "History", and its title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.

  10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.

  11. In any section entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

  12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

  13. Delete any section entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.

  14. Do not retitle any existing section as "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

You may add a section entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.


10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.