At 10:03 AM 4/29/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Does this mean that Diamond MM modems won't work? I have a 28.8 and a 56K.
Don't know anything about these specific modems.
>Both have software drivers (.inf files) that are loaded, but I think both
In windows an inf file is an instruction file for how windows is supposed
to deal with the device. A regular external modem which *is not* a winmodem
will have an inf file if it comes with a windows device installation
routine. (Usually to take advantage of some "specialness" or extend the
command set past the standard AT commands.)
>have processors on them. I think I will just need to reset the jumpers on
There are a couple of hardware configurations which get the generic name
"winmodem". The first is a true winmodem where all the modem card has on it
is a few tone converter chips and the entire modem functions are handled by
a program which runs in the windows environment on the computer's main CPU.
This is by far the slowest setup, and least likely to ever have any Linux
support.
The second is a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) based board which requires a
piece of program code loaded into it to work. The DSP chip is really a
highly specialized CPU chip. So it doesn't require anything from the
computer other than the service of downloading it's instruction set. For
some of these, if you boot windows so the instruction set gets loaded, then
reboot and load Linux *without turning off the power* they will work.
Others don't work because they reset on the reboot rather than on power
loss. (I have no idea which models are which. Someone posted a great modem
resource site some time back. Anyone still have it?)
The second category, DSP processor which requires code loaded into it, is
probably going to be the first group to get Linux support as Linux becomes
more popular because all that must be written is a small program to shove
the DSP instruction set into the card and a device driver to talk to the
hardware's physical address. Conceivably it could be call from the rc
scripts and the modem would work from then on. (As an aside, it's probably
possible to reverse engineer some of the windows loader programs, strip the
DSP code from it, and write a device driver and code loader program for
Linux without support from the manufacturer. But it's probably a few
hundred hours of work, and it's almost defiantly a copyright violation to
redistribute the DSP code. The best bet would be for several hundred users
to demand Linux support from the manufacturer.)
>the modem to disable PnP and set the IRQ manually. Am I wrong here
>anyone?
If it's really a "traditional" modem, then you're all set. In fact, if you
can disable the PnP and manually set the IRQ you probably have a
"traditional" modem rather than a dysfunctional one.
MB
--
Michael R. Batchelor
Industrial Informatics & Instrumentation, Inc.
