Controlling a modem from minicom

Hi Folks,

I am able to use kppp to dial and connect to an ISP . There is even an
associated script window that shows the Hayes commands that are being
sent to the modem , AT, ATDT etc.

What I actually wanted to do was send commands to the modem manually
so I called up minicom. I can pull up Ctrl A -Z, but that is it. The
screen that says, 'Welcome to minicom 2.00.0' has what looks like a
cursor in the form of a black rectangle. However you cannot type
anything at this prompt. I thought it was here you could type AT etc ?
Or is there something I am missing.

That's the modem to OS side. On the modem to ISP side, when kppp
dialed and connected, kppp gave a 'deamon died unexpectantly' - exit
status 1 message.

Some details
OS - Redhat 7.3
Modem - Conexant HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkr
Driver hcfpcihw


How can I issue manual commands to the modem (through minicom ?) and
why did kppp give an error message when connected ?

any help appreciated

thanks David

David Klemitz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I am able to use kppp to dial and connect to an ISP . There is even an
> associated script window that shows the Hayes commands that are being
> sent to the modem , AT, ATDT etc.
>
> What I actually wanted to do was send commands to the modem manually
> so I called up minicom. I can pull up Ctrl A -Z, but that is it. The
> screen that says, 'Welcome to minicom 2.00.0' has what looks like a
> cursor in the form of a black rectangle. However you cannot type
> anything at this prompt. I thought it was here you could type AT etc ?
> Or is there something I am missing.

kppp will have locked the serial port. You cannot run both kppp and
minicom on the same serial port at the same time.

Its also possible that the terminal has its modem is not echoing
characters.

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

David Klemitz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi Folks,

> I am able to use kppp to dial and connect to an ISP . There is even an
> associated script window that shows the Hayes commands that are being
> sent to the modem , AT, ATDT etc.

> What I actually wanted to do was send commands to the modem manually
> so I called up minicom.

This is what I get before Control-Z:

Welcome to minicom 1.82.1

OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n
Compiled on May 13 2000, 14:34:03.

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

ATZ
OK
ATW1s95=47
OK
at
OK

Here minicom is setup to initialize the modem when it's brought up.
At this point you should be able to immediately type in AT commands,
provided it's been configured correctly. I typed in the "at" above
and the modem responded with OK.

I can pull up Ctrl A -Z, but that is it. The
> screen that says, 'Welcome to minicom 2.00.0' has what looks like a
> cursor in the form of a black rectangle. However you cannot type
> anything at this prompt. I thought it was here you could type AT etc ?
> Or is there something I am missing.

Did you configure minicom for the correct serial device file?

> That's the modem to OS side. On the modem to ISP side, when kppp
> dialed and connected, kppp gave a 'deamon died unexpectantly' - exit
> status 1 message.

> Some details
> OS - Redhat 7.3
> Modem - Conexant HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkr
> Driver hcfpcihw

This is not a real modem.

> How can I issue manual commands to the modem (through minicom ?) and
> why did kppp give an error message when connected ?

Maybe the "modem" driver is behind the kernel curve. From man pppd:

1 An immediately fatal error of some kind occurred,
such as an essential system call failing, or run-
ning out of virtual memory.

kppp is a frontend to pppd which dials out and makes the modem connection
to the ISP's DCE and then launches pppd (and obfuscates what actually
happens).

--
Clifford Kite Email: "echo xvgr_yvahk-(E-Mail Removed)|rot13"
PPP-Q&A links, downloads: http://ckite.no-ip.net/

Hi Clifford,

thanks for your message.
> This is what I get before Control-Z:
>
> Welcome to minicom 1.82.1
>
> OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n
> Compiled on May 13 2000, 14:34:03.
>
> Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys
>
> ATZ
> OK
> ATW1s95=47
> OK
> at
> OK
>

I get everything except the AT commands. Are you saying a device file
calls up these commands or did you enter them manually ?


> Here minicom is setup to initialize the modem when it's brought up.
> At this point you should be able to immediately type in AT commands,
> provided it's been configured correctly. I typed in the "at" above
> and the modem responded with OK.

yes, like hyperterminal in Windows, that is what I thought I could do.
But it appears from what you are saying, there is some sort of config
file missing, even though I can use kppp to dial. I understand now
this is a separate process.

> Did you configure minicom for the correct serial device file?

no, not that I'm aware. Can you give me a few pointers in that
direction please ?

> > Some details
> > OS - Redhat 7.3
> > Modem - Conexant HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkr
> > Driver hcfpcihw
>
> This is not a real modem.

I understand the modem in question is controllerless. That is what the
'C' stands for but do not know what the other two letters are.

http://tinyurl.com/336gg

Can you infer that because this is not a 'real' (I take it you mean
h/w) modem you cannot address it with Hayes commands? This cannot be
true as I can see kppp using them. All I want to do is enter them
manually, ATS0 in this case.

> Maybe the "modem" driver is behind the kernel curve. From man pppd:
>
> 1 An immediately fatal error of some kind occurred,
> such as an essential system call failing, or run-
> ning out of virtual memory.
>
> kppp is a frontend to pppd which dials out and makes the modem connection
> to the ISP's DCE and then launches pppd (and obfuscates what actually
> happens).

sorry, I'm quite new to Linux, what is 'man pppd' ?

thanks for your help

regards

David

David Klemitz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I get everything except the AT commands. Are you saying a device file
> calls up these commands or did you enter them manually ?

All but the last one are from modem initialization that's done by
minicom, and are automatically shown on the first minicom screen when
it appears.

>> Here minicom is setup to initialize the modem when it's brought up.
>> At this point you should be able to immediately type in AT commands,
>> provided it's been configured correctly. I typed in the "at" above
>> and the modem responded with OK.

> yes, like hyperterminal in Windows, that is what I thought I could do.
> But it appears from what you are saying, there is some sort of config
> file missing, even though I can use kppp to dial. I understand now
> this is a separate process.

>> Did you configure minicom for the correct serial device file?

> no, not that I'm aware. Can you give me a few pointers in that
> direction please ?

You get a menu screen with Control-A, followed by Z (case doesn't matter).
The configuration here is in the menu "cOnfigure Minicom..O" which means
to press the letter "O". Sub-menus appear; look through them to see what's
needed. A serial device file for a real modem is /dev/ttySx, x=0,1,2,..

"Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys" on the first screen.

>> > Some details
>> > OS - Redhat 7.3
>> > Modem - Conexant HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkr
>> > Driver hcfpcihw
>>
>> This is not a real modem.

> I understand the modem in question is controllerless. That is what the
> 'C' stands for but do not know what the other two letters are.

HCF Host Controlled Family (Rockwell chipset modems)

from

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-quer...=HCF&Find=Find

You need a driver that the kernel will accept to make it work. A driver
that works for one kernel may not work for another. Drivers are not
usually supported in the kernel source tree - the last time I looked
there was only one. This is partially because the drivers are closed
source, but third parties support some of them in binary form.

> http://tinyurl.com/336gg

> Can you infer that because this is not a 'real' (I take it you mean
> h/w) modem you cannot address it with Hayes commands? This cannot be
> true as I can see kppp using them. All I want to do is enter them
> manually, ATS0 in this case.

No, they should work with AT commands in the same way as real modems.

>> Maybe the "modem" driver is behind the kernel curve. From man pppd:
>>
>> 1 An immediately fatal error of some kind occurred,
>> such as an essential system call failing, or run-
>> ning out of virtual memory.
>>
>> kppp is a frontend to pppd which dials out and makes the modem connection
>> to the ISP's DCE and then launches pppd (and obfuscates what actually
>> happens).

> sorry, I'm quite new to Linux, what is 'man pppd' ?

You are new! Type "man pppd" at a console. These are manual pages
and they exist for most applications as well as other things, e.g.,
system calls. kppp is reporting the exit status of pppd; these are
found in the EXIT STATUS section of man pppd.

--
Clifford Kite Email: "echo xvgr_yvahk-(E-Mail Removed)|rot13"
PPP-Q&A links, downloads: http://ckite.no-ip.net/
/* In my book, the first poster to resort to personal abuse in a Usenet
debate loses by default. - Rod Smith */

Why are you still using such unhandy thing as Hyper Terminal? Recently
I've found an interesting program - Flash Terminal. It is really Hyper
Terminal killer. With Flash Terminal you can chat and exchange files
via modem (including v.90, ISDN, ADSL, GPRS) and null-modem
simultaneously without Internet! You can exchange up to 255 files at
once with unlimited transfer resuming after connection break. Program
includes large amount of nice avatars.
Direct link for downloading:
http://www.qwertystudios.com/FlashTerminalSetup.zip
Direct link for Win95 version downloading:
http://www.qwertystudios.com/FlashTerminalSetup_w95.zip
Developers site:
http://www.qwertystudios.com/
More info:
http://www.qwertystudios.com/products.php.html

On 13 Feb 2004 08:35:00 -0800, Konstantin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Why are you still using such unhandy thing as Hyper Terminal?

According to the subject he's trying to use minicom. That isn't a
Windows program.


> Recently I've found an interesting program - Flash Terminal. It is
> really Hyper Terminal killer.

Isn't everything? HyperTerm is pretty bad. But you're advertising in a
Linux group, so the real question is whether there is a Linux version of
this "Flash Terminal".


--
-| Bob Hauck
-| To Whom You Are Speaking
-| http://www.haucks.org/