HOWTO_Install_a_modem_that_uses_the_eagle-usb_software

Introduction

Do you have problems installing your modem?? Is your modem listed here: Eagle-usb your in luck! and the best thing is you can use the 2.6 kernel.

You need to know:

• Your ISP username and password
• Medium linux knowledge
• Your ISP VPI and VCI (if you dont known them, run eagleconfig later in the installation)

Getting the goods

First thing you need to do is get the kernel source code of your choice.

Next you must emerge eagle-usb

emerge eagle-usb

Compile your kernel

To be able to use your eagle-usb modem, you MUST have these things compiled in your kernel. If you have never compiled your own kernel you might want to check out the kernel configuring tutorials found on this site, it might be good to learn How to compile a kernel.

cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig

 Loadable modules support ---> 
  [*] Enable loadable module support
  [*] Module unloading
  [ ]   Forced module unloading (<-- optional)
  [*] Module versioning support (EXPERIMENTAL) (<-- optional, future proving tho?)
  [ ] Source checksum for all modules (<-- optional)
  [ ] Automatic kernel module loading (<-- were load it manually)

 Device Drivers --->
   USB support --->
     [*] USB device filesystem
     [M] EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support
     ...
     <M>OHCI HCD support
     <M>UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support

   Networking support --->
     [*] Networking support
     [*] Networking device support
     <*> PPP (point-to-point protocol) support
     <*> PPP support for async serial ports
     <*> PPP support for sync tty ports
     <*> PPP Deflate compression
     <*> PPP BSD-Compress compression

     <*> PPP over ATM 

     <*> PPP over Ethernet (EXPERIMENTAL)

     Networking options --->
       <*> Unix domain sockets
       [*] TCP/IP networking
       < > The IPv6 protocol (EXPERIMENTAL) 
       <*> Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) (EXPERIMENTAL) <-- Only if you need it 
       <*>   Classical IP over ATM (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Character devices --->
    [*] Non-standard serial port support
    <M>   HDLC line discipline support

Please please please please please please please remember to do the rest of your kernel configuration!!

Now you can exit make menuconfig, save the changes and,

make
make install && make modules_install

If you get ANY messages when you run your new kernel, its best to fix them NOW. otherwise...

Final Leg

Now its time to finish all your hard work..

emerge eagle-usb 
depmod -a

Hopefully depmod -a gives you nothing!

Configuring

Now, before you continue, if you are using another modem (such as i was, a speedtouch 330). You MUST kill all previous pppd's..

killall pppd
ps x | grep -i pppd # make sure there dead

you CAN use eagleconfig, but i would advise against it and doing it manually. It is alright to use the eagleconfig tool AND then manually check everything, this is recommended if you dont know some of your settings such as VPI,VCI.

Editing:

this file should be fine, the only option you might want to change is uncommenting #DHCPCDOPTS="-R" The "-R" is so that your current (if any) dnsnameservers do not get overwritten.

DHCPCDOPTS="-R"

METHOD="--" 
the method can be either, pppoa, dhcpip, or static. if static, settings must be set correctly.

# Static IP stuff : IP, Gateway, Netmask
STATIC_IP="ta.ra.ta.ta"
STATIC_GW="ta.ra.ta.254"
STATIC_NM="255.255.255.0"

you MUST change your VPI VCI settings to the correct numbers, and to add to it all, there in HEX :) the VPI VCI i have is 0,38 (UK settings BT and tiscali)

VPI=00000000
VCI=00000026

you must change user "login_user_name" to your ISP username in dsl.peer

user "change_this_bit_now@isp.com"

Setup your username and password:

"login_user_name" * "password" *   #Change accordingly!

copy this over to chap settings aswell, pap and chap is dependent on your ISP

cp /etc/ppp/pap-secrets /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Double check everything and your ready!

modprobe eagle-usb
/etc/init.d/eagle-usb start

Your modem light should now be flashing! There are 3 steps to loading your modem, firmware loading, syncing, and ppp dialing.. once all 3 have finished with [OK] you are now online. try

ping www.google.com

You get a reply? Nothing more too it :) If you want the eagle-usb to run at boot,

echo "eagle-usb" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel.2.6
rc-update add eagle-usb default

If you are going to use dhcpcd, you must set it up before you continue with eagle-usb. There is a sample conf file at /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf.sample.

cp /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf.sample /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

Known Problems

Unkown command at line <x>

Unkown command at line <x>: Yep, i get this message aswell, it doesnt seem to effect my modem at all, but yes it is worrying. I am looking into this and will get back with a fix. For now dont worry about it!

PPP

PPP freezes? or the error "read (asyncReadFromPPP):": Well, to be honest, i have no idea what this message is, but i know that it means your kernel isnt set up properly, please check out Kernel Configuration in the HOWTO section, and the set right at the top!

PPP "Network seems to be down" error: It seems that this error is something to do with pppoa not being about to find your modem address point (normally eth0). First, type "ifconfig" and make sure your modem is present and what name it is under. If its not there, thats your problem :).. If it is, it seems that ${EAGLE_IF} doesnt contain the correct name, an easy fix is to change the file /etc/ppp/peers/dsl.peer and change the line

 pty "/usr/sbin/pppoa -I ${EAGLE_IF}"

to

 pty "/usr/sbin/pppoa -I eth0" #${EAGLE_IF}

changing eth0 to the correct name of your modem.

Modem stuff

I found that the first time i started my modem, i recieved errors about,

Mar  3 23:13:41 localhost kernel: [eagle-usb] Modem operational !!
Mar  3 23:14:21 localhost kernel: [eagle-usb] Modem operational !!
Mar  3 23:16:00 localhost last message repeated 2 times
Mar  3 23:16:04 localhost kernel: [eagle-usb] LOS Defect threshold reached. Rebooting
Mar  3 23:16:04 localhost kernel: [eagle-usb] 97th Rx err threshold reached. Rebooting

I dont know what these are about, but i am looking into it. After restarting eagle-usb service, it seemed to connect first time. Please feel free to add a post on this page, click on the "discussion and bugs" button at the top of the page. And i will try and fix any problems i can :)

Links

Ref: I found most of my information from another tutorial (in french tho!) here: French Tutorial