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A Slackware Desktop Enhancement GuideConfiguring a Plug-and-Play ISA Modem© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Despite rumors to the contrary, there remains an abundant number of “older” computers being used. Old 486 boxes are used by many people as basic servers and many Pentium I and II boxes remain in service. Many as desktop boxes no less. Those old boxes included the older ISA bus interface and use ISA cards. Hardly surprising then is that with these old boxes users must be able to configure and use those old ISA devices. Probably the most common ISA device used by many people today is the sound card. However, there are other cards seldom mentioned in configuration discussions such as ISA Plug-and Play (PnP) modems and network interface cards (NICs). Unlike the old ISA cards with physical jumpers, Plug-and-Play cards are software-configured and this one element alone often makes installing these cards challenging. Hence the popular name of Plug-and-Pray. However, a simple reason why people experience fewer problems with ISA sound cards than modems or NICs is better hardware recognition and support. However, there are tools available to help configure ISA PnP devices. The first step is to ensure the Linux kernel is compiled to support ISA devices. The default Slackware kernels provide this support, but if you recompile the kernel be sure to keep this option enabled. Like most efforts in Slackware, the process thereafter is largely one of patience and manual editing. The next step is to verify that the Slackware /etc/rc.d/rc.S script remains configured to support ISA PnP devices. The original rc.S script will look something like this: # Configure ISA Plug-and-Play devices:if [ -r /etc/isapnp.conf ]; then if [ -x /sbin/isapnp ]; then /sbin/isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf fi fi As can be seen by this snippet of scripting, the isapnp command uses a configuration file called /etc/isapnp.conf. Although the stock Slackware installation includes a sample file called /etc/isapnp.conf.sample, the actual file does not exist by default and users must generate this file. The sample file will not work so do not bother copying and renaming that file. The isapnp.conf file must be generated. Unfortunately, generating this file is not intuitively obvious or well documented in any Slackware handbook. Additionally, after generating this file users must manually test and tweak the file. The key to generating this configuration file is the /sbin/pnpdump command. When run without options, the pnpdump command sends its output to standard output—the console screen. The following must be performed with root privileges. To generate the isapnp.conf config file, use the -o switch: pnpdump -o /etc/isapnp.conf Or: pnpdump --o=/etc/isapnp.conf After generating the isapnp.conf config file, open the file with a text editor. The process at this point is mostly trial and error. Fortunately, the generated isapnp.conf config file includes the basic instructions about how to proceed. The process is little more than temporarily deleting appropriate hash marks to transform comments into instructions and then testing each new configuration. The pnpdump command generates a lot of additional information in the isapnp.conf file. All that need be uncommented are the respective IO and INT lines, and only one set at one time. Test each individual modification, from the command line as follows: isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf If the first test fails, then restore the hash marks to comment out those lines and try the next set of IO and INT lines. After testing each serial port in this manner, eventually the isapnp command will accept the new isapnp.conf config file and the user no longer will see various error messages at the console screen. At that point, as the isapnp.conf config file instructions indicate, users need to uncomment one additional line (ACT Y) to activate the changes permanently. After modifying the isapnp.conf file, ISA PnP modem users must coordinate the changes in the etc/serial config file. By default all lines in the in the serial.conf file are commented out. Users need only uncomment or add the appropriate /dev/ttySx line depending upon how they configured the isapnp.conf file. For modem users the last step is to verify the /etc/rc.d/rc.serial script is executable (chmod +x rc.serial). At this point your ISA PnP device should be functional and ready to use. Finis. |
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