Modem--pppd Died Unexpectedly

On my RHL9 system, I have an external US Robotics 56K modem that I would like to use.
Everything seems fine when I dial out with kppp. I get connected. The log window
shows that kppp is starting... Then I see a little window that suggests I'm logging
on. After about 30 seconds, it suddenly disconnects with a kppp #16 error (pppd died
unexpectedly). It says look at the kppp man page. I do, and #16 is a disconnect.
Doesn't help. Am I missing out on permission somewhere? I'm quite sure the userid and
password I give are legit.

BTW, the modem works just fine when I boot up in Win XP Pro on the other boot for the
machine.
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
(Formerly Homo habilis, erectus, heidelbergensis and now sapiens)

Sign in Programming Department: Mistakes made while you wait.

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>

W. Watson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On my RHL9 system, I have an external US Robotics 56K modem that
> I would like to use. Everything seems fine when I dial out
> with kppp. I get connected. The log window shows that kppp is
> starting... Then I see a little window that suggests I'm logging
> on. After about 30 seconds, it suddenly disconnects with a kppp
> #16 error (pppd died unexpectedly). It says look at the kppp man
> page. I do, and #16 is a disconnect. Doesn't help. Am I missing
> out on permission somewhere? I'm quite sure the userid and password
> I give are legit.

Not enough information. The 30 seconds sounds like *maybe* the
physical layer is bollixed but without log messages no one here can
tell, or say how.

Add the line

daemon.*;local2.* /var/log/ppp.log

to /etc/syslog.conf and do "killall -HUP syslogd" to make syslogd reread
the file. Post exact copy of messages in ppp.log, including timestamps.

> BTW, the modem works just fine when I boot up in Win XP Pro on the
> other boot for the machine.

What else is new? The ISP holds your hand with Windows - with Linux
you have to understand something about what you are attempting to do.

Please limit lines in usenet posts to 80 characters or less.

--
Clifford Kite Email: "echo xvgr_yvahk-(E-Mail Removed)|rot13"
PPP-Q&A links, downloads: http://ckite.no-ip.net/
/* For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill.
-- R. Clopton */

Clifford Kite wrote:

> W. Watson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On my RHL9 system, I have an external US Robotics 56K modem that
>>I would like to use. Everything seems fine when I dial out
>>with kppp. I get connected. The log window shows that kppp is
>>starting... Then I see a little window that suggests I'm logging
>>on. After about 30 seconds, it suddenly disconnects with a kppp
>>#16 error (pppd died unexpectedly). It says look at the kppp man
>>page. I do, and #16 is a disconnect. Doesn't help. Am I missing
>>out on permission somewhere? I'm quite sure the userid and password
>>I give are legit.
>
>
> Not enough information. The 30 seconds sounds like *maybe* the
> physical layer is bollixed but without log messages no one here can
> tell, or say how.
>
> Add the line
>
> daemon.*;local2.* /var/log/ppp.log
There was no file, so I created it with the above line.
>
> to /etc/syslog.conf and do "killall -HUP syslogd" to make syslogd reread
> the file. Post exact copy of messages in ppp.log, including timestamps.
I added *killall -HUP syslogd* as the last line.
When I fired up kppp and connected, it disconnected as before and told me I would
have to set the debug flag to get a log. It then gave me the opportunity to set it,
and try again. I did and it wrote a log to ~root/. Here are the log entries in order
(I wrote them down. It's not easy to get the file to this XP machine. I'll see if I
can get the floppy going next time, so I can write the log to it and then carry into
this building.)
Each line should be prefixed with the time and hostname (AstroPC2004). Immediately
after that every line contains [7314] before the lines that follow:
pppd 2.4.1 started by root uid 0
Using interface ppp0<--> /dev/ttyS0
Hang Up (SIGHUP)
Modem hang up
Connection terminated
Exit

While you are mulling that over, I'll see what I can do about getting a floppy of
data transferred.

>
>
>>BTW, the modem works just fine when I boot up in Win XP Pro on the
>>other boot for the machine.
>
>
> What else is new? The ISP holds your hand with Windows - with Linux
> you have to understand something about what you are attempting to do.
I tried minicom as well, and I was able to dial out, get a login, password, and then
watched it die. My knowledge of mincom is minimal, so login/pwd was about all I could do.

Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Using interface ppp0
Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Modem hangup
Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connection terminated.
Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Exit.

I finally realized that I had misinterprted the file changes you wanted me to make.
The displayed format of your message was a bit distorted. Anyway, I corrected it and
reran kppp. Same log results as before except the time stamps are different. I doubt
that the timing differences are substantially different. However, I can send you the
new ones if you feel otherwise.

Basically, I removed what I added to /var/log/ppp, executed the killall, and put the
single line (dae.../var/log...) into syslog.conf.

I found the Unruh paper on your web site and have picked up the thread from there.
I'm following the steps in it, and am just past the PPPD module support. It gave me
the 10 or so lines, and I've gone off to PPPD Options on page 7. I'm now in the
section on figuring out My ISP. I did the tail -f /var/log/ppp but haven't seen any
action in that window while toing through the Immediate PPP. Perhaps I should have
killed pppd as suggested about 10 lines from the top of page 8. I was able to enter
the two very long lines to connect to the ISP on page 8. After trying the setserial
/dev/ttyS0 auto... command, I noted again nothing is shown up in the ppp file. I'm
stopping here and will return to this tomorow, and after I hear from you.

I took a peek at your bio thinking I might get a clue to your geo area. Wronskians! I
haven't heard about those in a very long time. I too dabbled with partial
differential equations for my MA. I can't even think that far back any more!

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 01:29:57 GMT, W. Watson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Using interface ppp0
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Modem hangup
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connection terminated.
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Exit.

Add "debug" to /etc/ppp/options.


--
Programming Department:
Mistakes made while you wait.

W. Watson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Using interface ppp0
> Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Modem hangup
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connection terminated.
> Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Exit.

Sorry, I forgot to say you need to add the pppd option debug in
/etc/ppp/options. You should also configure kppp to get more verbose
messages for commands sent to the modem and the modem's responses to
those commands. I could tell you how to do that with a chat script,
but not for any of the various pppd frontends - including kppp.

As I interpreted the preceding post, apparently was no /etc/syslog.conf
file. That's very surprising to me, even for RH. If there's no
/etc/ppp/options then create one and add the single word line:

debug

This and all your other replies were after I'd quit for the day so this
will serve as a reply to all of them. Bill Unruh's pages are good but
may not be appropriate since you're using kppp. However, pppd is running
so you needn't worry about modules. Also setserial is seldom needed
these days. (Do those pages actually address debugging when using kppp?)

Here's a wild guess. If the USR is a Sportster then make sure the modem
initialization string is AT&F1.

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

Clifford Kite wrote:

> W. Watson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
>>Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Using interface ppp0
>>Dec 9 16:55:37 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
>>Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
>>Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Modem hangup
>>Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Connection terminated.
>>Dec 9 16:55:55 AstroPC2004 pppd[7314]: Exit.
>
>
> Sorry, I forgot to say you need to add the pppd option debug in
> /etc/ppp/options. You should also configure kppp to get more verbose
> messages for commands sent to the modem and the modem's responses to
> those commands. I could tell you how to do that with a chat script,
> but not for any of the various pppd frontends - including kppp.
Don't know how to configure kppp. I'm only using linux because the application
(meteor camera, 7/24 operation) I was given by Sandia Labs said it was required for
the camera they gave me. The personal requirements to use it were that one could
install RH linux. I'd say they sadly underestimated the later. It takes more linux
savy than that. Anyway, I do what I can. The app runs well, but their are little
oddities like the modem that aren't up to snuff. (It's a shoestring Sandia operation.
I'm pretty much on my own. They can answer questions about the app. Science marches on.)

>
> As I interpreted the preceding post, apparently was no /etc/syslog.conf
> file. That's very surprising to me, even for RH. If there's no
> /etc/ppp/options then create one and add the single word line:
>
> debug
>
> This and all your other replies were after I'd quit for the day so this
> will serve as a reply to all of them. Bill Unruh's pages are good but
> may not be appropriate since you're using kppp. However, pppd is running
> so you needn't worry about modules. Also setserial is seldom needed
> these days. (Do those pages actually address debugging when using kppp?)
He refers to debug a lot when trying to understand the ISP responses. I have barely
gotten into that. He passed on putting the debug in options, since he was going to
incorporate it later. See my output below.
>
> Here's a wild guess. If the USR is a Sportster then make sure the modem
> initialization string is AT&F1.
>
I'm not sure if it's a Sportster. It doesn't say on the outside. Just USR 56K
external. I used the AT&F1 code as the second string in the Modem setup. Didn't do
anything that I can detect.

Here's the ppp.log file:

Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: using channel 22
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Using interface ppp0
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
<magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <mru 1500>
<asyncmap 0xa0000> <auth pap> <magic 0xbf5ce293> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfRej id=0x1 <auth pap>]
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
<magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP TermReq id=0x1]
Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP TermAck id=0x1]
Dec 10 08:46:59 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
<magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 last message repeated 5 times
Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Modem hangup
Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Connection terminated.
Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Exit.

W. Watson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I'm not sure if it's a Sportster. It doesn't say on the outside. Just USR 56K
> external. I used the AT&F1 code as the second string in the Modem setup. Didn't do
> anything that I can detect.

That's because my wild guess was wrong, at least for the current problem.

> Here's the ppp.log file:

> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp0

I see why you worried about modules. The messages above aren't significant
but could be eliminated by putting the line

alias ppp0 off

in /etc/modules.conf, assuming the file exists.

> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: using channel 22
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Using interface ppp0
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
> <magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <mru 1500>
> <asyncmap 0xa0000> <auth pap> <magic 0xbf5ce293> <pcomp> <accomp>]
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfRej id=0x1 <auth pap>]

PAP authentication is rejected by pppd above. If you don't authenticate
your ISP account it means that you don't get to establish a PPP link.

> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
> <magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]

The Ack received above is so LCP negotiations are officially brought
to the open state, and it can then send the LCP Terminate-Request you
see below.

> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: rcvd [LCP TermReq id=0x1]
> Dec 10 08:46:56 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP TermAck id=0x1]
> Dec 10 08:46:59 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0>
> <magic 0xc84eb7a4> <pcomp> <accomp>]
> Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 last message repeated 5 times

Pppd tries again and again to restart LCP negotiation but it's over
as far as the ISP is concerned. The pppd persist option might cause
this to happen.

> Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
> Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Modem hangup
> Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Connection terminated.
> Dec 10 08:47:14 AstroPC2004 pppd[14041]: Exit.

The ISP hangs up here. Wherever the pppd options are kept by kppp they
may need to have the option ``user YourISPusername'' added and the line

YourISPusername * YourISPpassword

added to /etc/ppp/pap-secrets. But the ways of kppp may be such that
it prompts for a password instead (I think I've seen this recently in
a post). If so then kppp may not need the pap-secrets file configured.
If it tries to do login/password authentication, it's doing the wrong
thing. I'm at a lost to say why authentication is failing - it depends
on what the frontend kppp is doing, i.e., how it is configured for pppd
to use the password.

If you want to try a script, the ppp-secrets.gz script found at my
website under "Files for download" should be easy to configure and use.
Instructions are included in the script. You should change ATZ\&F in
the line

export ModemInit='ATZ\&F OK ATM0W1\&D1%E1s95=47'

of that script to AT\&F since I just recently found out the Z negates
the &F when combined as ATZ\&F (I'll change ATZ\&F OK to ATZ OK AT\&F OK
in the script real soon now ). The remainder of the initialization will
likely work for you but can be considered as fluff.

To get chat log messages the S in the chat -vsS parameter must be removed.
See man chat for more.

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