Modem - Intel536 (Ambient 5628D)

[Acesabe]

Anyone had any success with this one -Intel536 (Ambient 5628D) - there is now a .deb in the Mepis pool for this (luuuvly winmodem :-X) modem here:

http://apt.mepis.org/simply32-6.0/po...15/extras-386/

-the Intel536 package - but when trying to configure with KPPP - the 'query modem' feature reports 'modem busy' - any ideas?

[Farcry]

Acesabe,

:( Nope, I tried the intel536ep-modules-<kernel> package for my kernel and I had the same sort of message as you got. Grrr... I've got a few of these modems lying around too!

[chipsburner]

I had one of these Intel Hamn PCI "so called Hardware type" modems a long time ago, that was supposed to work with linux. Back then I was very green with using linux, think that might been in the days I toyed with Red Hat 7 or 8. Needless to say I never got it working with linux. I put it in a 98 machine and sold it. It was not a bad windows modem if I remember correctly. But an internel hardware modem is always a 16 bit isa board with jumpers on it, what I learned the hard way.

This card, the "hamm" doesn't have jumpers for com ports/irq's, therefore it needs software to set that up.

I had a lot of experience working with modems in dos/windows. And probably none of it will help with this modem. But I would check in your bios setup to see if you have two serial ports enabled. The second one you are not using, and it could (probably) be interfearing with the internal serial port on the hamm modem. If you are using a usb mouse try disabling both serial ports. Same sometimes with a PS2 mouse. This way you free up resources and stop conflicts. Last, only one modem in the computer while testing the Hamm. But then, you folks have probably already done these.

If not, your deb driver probably needs to be completely uninstalled. Then the bios setup changed to be correct. The the Hamm installed. Then the deb driver installed again, and finially a reboot, just in case.

The Hamm was a real turkey for me.

[Farcry]

Thanks for the info and extra tips, chipsburner.

ThatÂ’s odd?
The hardware support Mepis has is the only reason IÂ’m continuing with it.
The hardware IÂ’m referring to is my LTmodem and My intel 536EP with the ambient MD5628D chipset. Both work perfect with no additional drivers added in Mepis 6.0.
One at a time of course.
I get a faster connection with my LTmodem with Mepis than I do in windows. A lot faster!

Edit to add:
Thats not the only reason I'm sticking with Mepis. Mepis does have a better layout than any other distro I have tried so far. None of which worked with any of my any modems.

[chipsburner]

Originally Posted by wingruntled

ThatÂ’s odd?
The hardware support Mepis has is the only reason IÂ’m continuing with it.
The hardware IÂ’m referring to is my LTmodem and My intel 536EP with the ambient MD5628D chipset. Both work perfect with no additional drivers added in Mepis 6.0.
One at a time of course.
I get a faster connection with my LTmodem with Mepis than I do in windows. A lot faster!

Edit to add:
Thats not the only reason I'm sticking with Mepis. Mepis does have a better layout than any other distro I have tried so far. None of which worked with any of my any modems.

wingruntled,

So you are saying that the intel Hamn Ambient 5628D modem worked out of the box in Mepis, without installing that deb file driver they are discussing here? By perhaps just using KPPP, and setting it up?

The nice feature about this modem was that it was a pci card that is supposed to work with linux, most newer motherboard no longer have legacy 16 bit isa slots, making an external serial modem the only option. Which is a lot more wires and clutter, althought I think worthwhile looking at the lights of an external modem gives one a sense of whats happening with your internet connection.

I am setting up a older desktop computer right now that already has 98ME on it. Added a 4.3 gig hard drive and installed Kanotix 2006-1 RC3 on it, dual boot. Would have put Mepis 6 on it, but somehow, 4 gig is not enough space for it. Anyway, it has a PCTel PCT789T-C1 (Compaq) pci winmodem in it. Probably not much chance to get this one to work with Linux. Can't completely test it without a phone line anyway.

Chips
The modem I have is PCI. And yes it worked in true plug & pray fashion with no additional drivers installed under 6.0
To be exact the chips is an Ambient MD5628D-L-C.
The silk screen on the back says itÂ’s a Jaton 62230. Also a sticker that claims itÂ’s a V.92???
WinComm V.92

All the drivers for the chipset are on Intels site. The Damn thing even works with Win95

[Farcry]

Guys - oh my gosh! I've now got two variants of the Intel536ep modems working on separate desktop machines! (The second one definitely has the Ambient 5628D chipset.)

Here's what led to it:

Firstly, wingruntled inspired me to try the modems having booted from the original Mepis 6.0 live CD. They worked! Mepis automatically created a proper /dev/modem link without me needing to tinker in any way with the modem settings.
Secondly, I booted from hard disk again, selecting the original 2.6.15-26-386 kernel instead of my usual updated 2.6.15-27-686 kernel. I then uninstalled the intel536ep-modules-2.6.15-27-686 package and installed the intel536ep-modules-2.6.15-26-386 package instead.

So, it looks like these modems only work with the original 2.6.15-26-386 kernel!

Thanks for your encouragement and I'm so happy to have got these old "winbrutes" of cards working.
But, looks like I'll probably have to stick with Mepis 6.0 rather than upgrading to 6.5 when it comes out, because of the modems issue and the definite problems I know that I'll have with Matrix G400/G450 and Nvidia Vanta graphics cards. Oh well, back to the tried and trusted old gear!

[Acesabe]

Thats interesting - i couldn't get the 536 going last December on a new pc - so perhaps some BIOS tweaking is needed - or better still - hope my friend gets round to digging out one of his old Linux compatible modems from his loft!!

Acesabe
If that new motherboard has two onboard serial ports and the second is not being use, disable it in the bios. That will free up an IRQ and the com ports assignments it would normally use. For that matter, if you are not using any of the onboard serial ports for anything, disable them. No sense in wasting resources for no reason.