# Solved: help needed with getting dialup up & running on ubuntu



## villagemata (Oct 8, 2010)

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hi everyone,
I have what appears to be a not uncommon problem judging by the search results I got on this site. I have Ubuntu 10.04 on my Asus Eee netbook, and I need to set up a dial-up connection. I got a Zoom 3095 modem and installed an up-to-date driver for it from linuxant.com, and their tech support person said that based on my Gnome PPP connection log, the modem appears to be working fine. Here's the quote from his e-mail to me:
"from the log you have send us, the driver appears to be running just fine. The source of the problem seems to be the following messages:

---
--> Unable to run /usr/sbin/pppd.
--> Check permissions, or specify a "PPPD Path" option in wvdial.conf.
---
You could try to run the dialer as "root", you can generally do this under Ubuntu by prefixing the shell command you are using with "sudo". Please refer to Ubuntu's documentation for more details."

To me this advice was difficult to understand because I'm a complete Linux newbie. By "dialer" I wasn't sure if he meant wvdial or gnome ppp, or if they count as the same thing for these purposes or what. I'm familiar with the term command, but not "shell command"; what is meant by "shell"? And I'm not sure what he means by "Ubuntu's documentation" either. I don't have anything on paper about Ubuntu; does he mean something I could read on my computer? If so, would it be reachable via my desktop or would I have to go online to find it?

Since I found his wording confusing, I e-mailed him back asking for clarification, but he still hasn't responded; maybe he feels like it's not his duty to help me since the driver works fine...? Anyway, in the meantime I got on your forum and read some of lotuseclat79's advice to different people with problems similar to mine. For example, in his exchange with number9, he said to do the following (here's my Terminal log from doing it):

k[email protected]:~$ sudo ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/modem
[sudo] password for kamalini:

ln: creating symbolic link `/dev/modem': File exists
[email protected]:~$ ls -lt /dev/modem
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2010-09-28 09:36 /dev/modem -> ttyACM0

Then he said "try following Setting up Dial-up connection in Ubuntu." The underlined words were a link to an article on ubuntugeek.com. I went to it and tried systematically to do everything that was advised there, but on each of the options for how to do it, I got stuck. First of all there were instructions on "Configuring a Dial-Up Connection using Networking option". I was instructed to go to System --> Administration --> Networking; but there is no listing of Networking on my Administration menu, only Network Tools. On my System --> Preferences menu there is something called Network Connections, but when I open that, it looks different from the example image provided on-screen in the ubuntugeek article, and there is no option of "Modem connection" such as I'm told in the article to select. So, scratch that avenue of progress.
Next the ubuntugeek article offers to guide me through configuring a dial-up connection using pppconfig. I successfully began this process, but after selecting the "Use dynamic DNS" option as instructed, the next screen which came up was something completely not mentioned in the article. It tells me to enter the IP number for my primary nameserver. I have no idea what a nameserver is, but I contacted my ISP to see if they could tell me. The guy sounded bewildered and couldn't tell me anything except that it's supposed to be detected automatically when I connect. So I was stuck again.
Then the ubuntugeek article says:

"Before you connect for the first time you need to add yourself to both the dip and dialout groups by using the commands
sudo adduser YOURNAMEHERE dip
sudo adduser YOURNAMEHERE dialout"
I did this and thought I was successful, but today when I had tried a bunch of other stuff unsuccessfully, I tried the "pon" command just for the heck of it, and what I got was "Error: only members of the 'dip' group can use this command." Then I tried adding myself to the dip group again, just in case doing so the first time with evident success had not taken persistent effect, and the message I got was: "The user 'kamalini' is already a member of 'dip'." But trying "pon" again still got me the same error message. lol!

Then the article tells me how to install Gnome PPP, which I already have on my computer; so that was the end of trying to follow the advice in that article for me.
Next lotuseclat79 gave number9 a link to another thread where he had given instructions on setting up wvdial, so I tried to do this. I opened a Terminal and entered "sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf" so that I could edit the wvdial.conf file and first of all I tried putting everything in the way lotuseclat79 had advised, except substituting "/dev/ttyACM0" for my own modem in place of "/dev/ttyS0"; taking out init strings 2 through 4 since I don't have a USR modem and putting "ATDT;" as init string 2; removing the line that said "Dial Prefix = 1" (since my ISP had told me that my modem should dial a number the same way I would dial it in order to make a telephone call on my phone, and dialing a 1 before the area code for a local number results in my not being able to get through on the telephone); and taking out the entire "Dialer phone2" section since I don't have a second number set up to dial as of yet (I could set up another one if necessary, but I've been too busy to bother with that as long as I'm not aware that the first access number is causing me difficulties; please let me know if any of the info in the below log makes you think that my access number is causing the problem and that I should change it--thank you so much!!). Then, after saving wvdial.conf, I opened a new Terminal and issued the wvdial phone1 command. It tried to dial up, but in the end it kept on getting the same message that the linuxant tech support person had pointed out as the problem -- the one that says:

---
--> Unable to run /usr/sbin/pppd.
--> Check permissions, or specify a "PPPD Path" option in wvdial.conf.
---
wvdial kept on exclaiming "Don't know what to do!" repeatedly between posting this message, so I just closed the terminal and started trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I don't know how to check permissions (I read somewhere that I could try to do it by right-clicking on the /etc/wvdial.conf file and selecting Properties, but when I go into gedit --> Open --> File System --> etc and scroll down to wvdial.conf and try right-clicking on it, the only menu that pops up says Add to Bookmarks, Show Hidden Files, and Show Size Column; nothing about Properties. Similarly, when I have wvdial.conf open in gedit and I right-click on the words "wvdial.conf" either on the header bar on top of the window or on the smaller tab on the left-hand side lower down in the window, I get menus that do not have the word Properties on them). I also have no idea how I can find out what PPPD Path I should specify in wvdial.conf or where in the wvdial.conf list (after what and before what) I should add that item even if I did find out what to put. I did a search for "check permissions" (in quotes like that) in the Help and Support section on my System menu, which turned up nothing; I clicked on the link to the Ubuntu Help Pages and found a thread started by someone with the same problem as me, opened it, and tried one by one any solutions that were offered there for that person. The only one that did anything was the last one: opening a Terminal and issuing "sudo gnome-ppp". Here's the log from that attempt (I changed my actual username to "[email protected]" in here; I have no idea why it says name and password pair is incorrect, because I'm sure I entered both correctly in wvdial.conf as well as in Gnome PPP -- I just checked again and made sure that I did):

[email protected]:~$ sudo gnome-ppp
WVCONF: /root/.wvdial.conf
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: Editing `/dev/null'.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Modem Port Scan<*1>: Scanning ttyACM0 first, /dev/modem is a link to it.
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: WvModem<*1>: Cannot get information for serial port.
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: Scanning your serial ports for a modem.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 Z -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Modem Identifier: ATI -- 56000
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 4800: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 9600: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 19200: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 38400: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 57600: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 115200: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 230400: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 460800: AT -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: Max speed is 460800; that should be safe.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Modem Port Scan<*1>: S1 S2 S3 
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: 
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: Found an USB modem on /dev/ttyACM0, using link /dev/modem in config.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ttyACM0<Info>: Speed 460800; init "ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0"
GNOME PPP: STDOUT: Modem configuration written to /dev/null.
GNOME PPP: Connecting...
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Cannot get information for serial port.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Initializing modem.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATZ
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATZ
GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Modem initialized.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Waiting for carrier.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: CONNECT 115200
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: STATION ID - chtnc21rh03hp005,nrcga43ev
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Welcome 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Please Sign-on: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Looks like a login prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Name, password pair incorrect
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Please Sign-on: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Looks like a login prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Name, password pair incorrect
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Please Sign-on: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Looks like a login prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Name, password pair incorrect
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Please Sign-on: 
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Looks like a login prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: [email protected]
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Login failed, reason = (-190,nrcga43ev,1286663361-000,chtnc21rh03hp005)
GNOME PPP: STDERR: Connection closed by foreign host.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: NO CARRIER
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Connected, but carrier signal lost! Retrying...
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Waiting for carrier.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Connected, but carrier signal lost! Retrying...
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Waiting for carrier.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATM1L3DT3365896001
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> No Carrier! Trying again.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Maximum Attempts Exceeded..Aborting!!
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Disconnecting at Sat Oct 9 18:29:49 2010

One last thing that I did, and I can't remember for certain whether I did it before or after issuing the sudo gnome-ppp command, was to get into the gnome ppp setup and discover for the first time that an init string was listed there (as number 2) which seemed to be especially for my modem. I copied it into wvdial.conf as Init2 and relegated ATDT; to the new position of Init3. Then I saved wvdial.conf again.

Sorry this post is so long -- I just wanted to give you all the facts at once so as not to risk wasting any time on exchanging questions and answers prior to your (hopefully!) being able to help me with my problem. I'm feeling short on time because it's been almost a full month since I bought my modem from Best Buy, so my opportunity to return it is running out. Although it doesn't seem to me like my modem is causing my problems and I feel sure that I _will_ be able to get online sooner or later, my dh is concerned about our $50 that we spent on the modem and doesn't want to take chances of throwing that money away on an unsuccessful attempt to get online, so we've decided that if I don't succeed in getting online in the next day or two then we'll need to return the modem to the store and get another one after a week or so. I'd rather not go through that unnecessarily, so I'd love it if y'all could help me get online tomorrow. If it doesn't work out it won't be the end of the world I'm sure, but it would be nice. Thanks for any help!!!!! 

Sincerely, Malli


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi villagemata,

Welcome to TSG!

Have you read the posts referenced in Dial up friendly distribution, especially:
1) post #4 in the thread Dial up internet with Linux.

I assume you did, and if you still need help:

Try the Networking and Modem sections of the Ubuntu User's Guide for Lucid Lynx 10.04.

Also, after getting successfully connected, try Ubuntu 10.04 Post-Install Guide: What to do and try after installing Lucid Lynx!.

-- Tom


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## arochester (Jan 17, 2007)

Have you seen "Dialup Modem Howto" on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto ?


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## villagemata (Oct 8, 2010)

Thanks for the welcome, Tom! It's very cool to find a group of nice, patient, helpful people like this.  
Thanks to both of you for your posts. I'll be glad to see if I can get anywhere by following the advice located at the links you gave me. Right now though, the position I'm in is that I had to return my modem to the store just to make certain that we wouldn't lose our $50 that we paid for it, and I have yet to buy another one. 
When I do, what brand would you say I should get -- the same that I had (Zoom), or USR? Since I already went through hours of trouble making sure that I had an up-to-date driver installed for the Zoom modem, I'd like it if I didn't have to go through that again. The Zoom tech support person and I just sort of stumbled through the process, so it might be hard to repeat. I'm not 100% sure how these drivers work, but it seems reasonably possible to me that if I got exactly the same type of modem from the same company, the driver that I already have installed on my computer would work with the new modem just as well as with the previous one. Whereas if I got a different modem from USR, I don't know if it would work with the same driver that I already have or whether I'd need to download a new, different driver. I'd rather not have to download a new one, but on the other hand, I know from your posts on previous threads that you, Tom, used a USR modem and maybe you would feel more comfortable or confident trying to walk me through the process of connecting with one of their modems. 
Let me know, if you can, what you think would be best for me to do... Thanks!
sincerely, Malli


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Malli,

USR definitely! One of my posts gives the details of setting up wvdial with USR specific statements in the wvdial.conf file that would be useful to you. A USR modem should work out of the box, once you have wvdial setup in the wvdial.conf file as I specified, and your user account name is a member of the dialout group.

-- Tom


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## villagemata (Oct 8, 2010)

OK Tom, thanks. I ordered a USR modem from Amazon last night and it's supposed to get here in 5 to 8 days with the free shipping. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Malli


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## villagemata (Oct 8, 2010)

OK, I got my USR modem and I my dial-up is now working!!!! Thank you so much again, Tom and arochester, for your helpful suggestions! 
Tom, just so you and anyone else who reads this thread will know for the future, I want to mention the following. You stated in your post #4 on the Dial up internet with Linux thread that the model number of your USR modem was 5686E. Well, the one I got is a 5637. When I got it, I started over from scratch with following your instructions, beginning with that "issuing a symbolic link" stuff that you mention should be done first, which I had already done in the past with my Zoom modem. (I wasn't sure if it needed to be done again or not with the new modem, but I did it just in case.) I got exactly the same result as when I did this with my Zoom modem: the [phrase, name, term, or whatever I should call it] that came up was ttyACM0, not ttyS0. I wasn't 100% sure whether this meant I should replace the "ttyS0" (in the example wvdial.conf contents that you gave in your Dial up internet with Linux post #4) with "ttyACM0" or not... so I tried it both ways. Well, ttyS0 decidedly didn't work for me. I forget now exactly what response I got when I tried that, but it was clear that that was not the right phrase for me to use. When I used ttyACM0, there was no problem. 
Also interesting was that there was no problem for me with using the Init2 string that you give there, but I got the response "Bad init string" from wvdial about both the Init3 and Init4 strings from your list. Another "init string" that worked just fine for me was the one that Gnome PPP automatically detected for my modem when I pushed the Detect button (in Gnome PPP's Setup section). I kept the strings that you labeled Init0, Init1, and Init5 in place during all of my experimenting, of course always changing the number of Init5 to whatever its actual numeric position in the list was at the time, and I never had a problem with any of these. In between the Init1 and Init5 strings (after experiencing difficulty with the Init3 and 4 strings and taking them out) I tried your Init2 string by itself; my Gnome PPP-detected string by itself (also labeled Init2 in that case); and both together, listed in that case as Init2 and Init3. I had no problem with any of these arrangements, in the sense that wvdial said "OK" each time about these non-problematic init strings. However, I was still unable to connect at that point. 
So, the most helpful thing for me was found by following the link you provided to the Modem section of the Ubuntu User's Guide for Lucid Lynx 10.04. Under the header "Gnome PPP and wvdial" in that section, the final sentence is, "See this forum thread for tweaks required to make Gnome PPP and wvdial operational in Lucid." Bingo! The tweaks mentioned therein were what did it for me at last!!!! After issuing the commands recommended by pacz999 in that thread, here is my connection log:

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60 
--> Cannot get information for serial port. 
--> Initializing modem. 
--> Sending: ATZ 
ATZ 
OK 
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 
OK 
--> Modem initialized. 
--> Sending: ATM1L3DT3365896001 
--> Waiting for carrier. 
ATM1L3DT3365896001 
CONNECT 44000/ARQ/V92/LAPM/V44 
--> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately. 
--> Starting pppd at Fri Oct 29 13:22:40 2010 
--> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied 
--> --> CHAP (Challenge Handshake) may be flaky. 
--> Pid of pppd: 14636 
--> Using interface ppp0 
--> local IP address **.**.***.** 
--> remote IP address 199.70.164.86 
--> primary DNS address 64.136.173.8 
--> secondary DNS address 64.136.164.66

(I replaced my IP address with asterisks because I have no idea whether or not giving it out could cause me any potential harm or trouble, so just being on the safe side... sorry if it's stupid of me in this case, I'm not sure!)

Obviously since I got the IP and DNS addresses showing up there at the end of the log, I was already successfully connected (yay!! ). However, I didn't like that "Warning" sentence about the permission being denied for modifying chap-secrets. I felt concerned because denial of permission was what had kept me from being able to connect for 1 1/2 months and I didn't want to deal with any more permission denials. So, in Terminal, I just repeated pacz999's "pap-secrets" command with the word "chap" in place of "pap": i.e., I entered

sudo chmod 777 /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

in my Terminal and then tried connecting again. The following was my log from that attempt:

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60 
--> Cannot get information for serial port. 
--> Initializing modem. 
--> Sending: ATZ 
ATZ 
OK 
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 
OK 
--> Modem initialized. 
--> Sending: ATM1L3DT3365896001 
--> Waiting for carrier. 
ATM1L3DT3365896001 
CONNECT 42666/ARQ/V92/LAPM/V44 
--> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately. 
--> Starting pppd at Fri Oct 29 13:36:04 2010 
--> Pid of pppd: 14719 
--> Using interface ppp0 
--> local IP address **.**.***.** 
--> remote IP address 199.70.164.86 
--> primary DNS address 64.136.173.8 
--> secondary DNS address 64.136.164.66

 The "warning" line was gone! So I felt totally successful at that point.

(As you can see, regarding the init strings, my final decision was just to stick with whatever Gnome PPP had detected for me. I've been connecting perfectly fine for the last several days using that.)

Again, thanks so much for the help. The information IS out there... we newbies just have to be told where to find it!!!
  

-- Malli


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Malli,

Glad you finally succeeded! I remember the INIT strings that I posted after experimenting from a website with modem information on USR modems - I assume it is different for each different modem.

-- Tom


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