[Gllug] ISDN Configuration

[Ian Northeast]

Rich Walker wrote:
> 
> In message <001101c12445$5ea68800$050ea8c0 at thebizz>
>           "Andy Loates" <andy at the-bizz.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> [snip: ISDN WOES]
> > Hi there.
> 
> > BT supplied me with a Speedway ISDN TA. As you probably Know they only talk
> > Microsoftese, and there is no info/drivers for Linux.
> >
> > At the moment i have a Power indicator and ISDN link light
> > showing. I cannot however get any sort of connection from/to the
> > TA from my Linux box (on COM1 serial port). Are there any drivers
> > available for the  Speedway (Can't see any on BT Web site), OR
> > WILL IT EVEN WORK WITH LINUX! (I have another 10 days in which to
> > return it!). Is there a HowTo/guide for installing this box on the
> > net?
> 
> The isdnutils  package comes with quite a lot of documentation. I
> was able without too many problems to get the internal PCI Speedway
> card to work on (severl) versions of Linux. ATM, it's running under
> debian, with a stock debian kernel (2.2.18pre21: that's stock as in
> "from the CD I had", and it was a non-stock cd...), and the
> isdnutils package version 3.0-20.
> 
> When I tried installing it in an older version of Caldera openlinux,
> I had to get ISDN patches for kernels, compile utilities and so
> forth.
> 
> The HOWTO in /usr/share/doc/isdnutils reminds me that I needed to
> load the relevant modules. I did this at install time, by selecting
> the hisax module to load and telling it, as options, "type=27
> protocol=2" which I found the hard way (ages ago) matches the BT PCI
> card.
> 

While it is true that the original BT Speedway card (an AVM Fritz! PCI
V1) works fine in Linux with little or no fiddling, it seems that they
have silently switched to the V2 which doesn't (and AVM don't seem to
offer the V1 any more). Search on Google for "Don't get a BT Speedway
for Linux" - around the start of this month. AVM offer drivers for
certain specific kernels (which seem to relate to SuSE releases
unsurprisingly, as AVM are German). However, this is unlikely to be
useful except to anyone running a stock SuSE kernel. Who does that?

> I also quote the following from the isdn4linux FAQ at you:
> 
> 17. Does isdn4linux support external terminal adapters?
>        No, but it doesn't need to. Terminal adapters are designed to
>        behave either like a modem or like a network card. Linux already
>        supports both modems and network cards without isdn4linux - so no
>        special ISDN driver is necessary (which usually greatly simplifies
>        the configuration),
> 
> At least in theory, pointing pppd at the TA might work. Have you
> tried opening it with minicom (or other terminal program)?

I don't have personal experience of the BT external TA, but have read
many times on Usenet that it does not, and will never, work in Linux.
Again, Google should come up with the goods but I havn't seen a post for
a while and can't remember anything exact to search on.

Andy, I would return it and get an Asus internal card, 25UKP from Scan.
They are said to be good.

Regards, Ian

Regards, Ian

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