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Linux PPP FAQ Al Longyear, lloonnggyyeeaarr@@nneettccoomm..ccoomm v1.12, 12 January 1996 This document contains a list the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about PPP for Linux (and their answers). It is really _n_o_t a HOWTO, but is in `classical' Question / Answer form. We have a dif- ferent document which represents the PPP-HOWTO. It is written by Robert Hart. 11.. PPrreeffaaccee Please send any corrections to lloonnggyyeeaarr@@nneettccoomm..ccoomm. This is but one of the Linux HOWTO/FAQ documents. You can get the HOWTO's from ssuunnssiittee..uunncc..eedduu:://ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//ddooccss//HHOOWWTTOO (this is the `official' place) or via WWW from the Linux Documentation home page <hhttttpp::////ssuunnssiittee..uunncc..eedduu//mmddww//lliinnuuxx..hhmmttll>. You cannot rely on the HOWTO's being posted to ccoommpp..ooss..lliinnuuxx..aannsswweerrss, as some news feeds have complained about their size. Throughout this document, I have used the word `remote' to mean `the system at the other end of the modem link'. It is also called `peer' in the PPP documentation. Another name for this is called the `gateway' when the term is use for routing. Its IP address will show as the `P-t-P' address if you use iiffccoonnffiigg. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Morning Star is a registered trademark of Morning Star Technologies Incorporated. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies. 22.. GGeenneerraall iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn 22..11.. WWhhaatt iiss PPPPPP?? PPP, or Point-to-Point Protocol, is a recognized `official' Internet protocol. It is a protocol used to exchange IP frames (and others) over a serial link. The current RFC for PPP is 1661. There are many related ones. Contrary to what some people think, it does not mean "Peer to Peer Processing"; although you may do peer-peer communications using TCP/IP over a PPP link. 22..22.. MMyy uunniivveerrssiittyy ((ccoommppaannyy)) ddooeess nnoott ssuuppppoorrtt PPPPPP.. CCaann II uussee PPPPPP?? In general, no. A `classical' PPP implementation requires that you make changes to the routes and network devices supported by the operating system. This may mean that you will have to rebuild the kernel for the remote computer. This is not a job for a general user. If you can convince your administration people that PPP is a `good thing' then you stand a chance of getting it implemented. If you can't, then you probably can't use PPP. However, if you are using a system which is supported by the people who are marketing the "TIA" (The Internet Adapter) package, then there is hope. I do not have much information on this package, however, from what I have found, they plan to support PPP in "the next version". (My information may be old. Contact them directly. Information on TIA is available at ffttpp..mmaarrkkeettppllaaccee..ccoomm in the //ppuubb//ttiiaa directory.) If your system is not supported by TIA, and you choose not to use slirp, and you can't convince the admin group to support PPP then you should use the `tteerrmm' package. Some service providers will object to you running `tteerrmm'. They have many different reasons, however the most common is `security concerns'. There is a version of TIA for Linux. In addition to TIA, Danny Gasparovski wrote a program called sslliirrpp which will perform functions similar to TIA. The program is currently available with the source code from the ftp site bblliittzzeenn..ccaannbbeerrrraa..eedduu..aauu:://ppuubb//sslliirrpp. You should obtain the code if you wish additional information about this program. From the initial examination, it is seems to be an excellent contender to the commercial TIA program. 22..33.. WWhheerree iiss PPPPPP?? It is in two parts. The first part is in the kernel. In the kernels from 1.1.13, the driver is part of the network system drivers. The second part is the `daemon' process, ppppppdd. This is a rreeqquuiirreedd process. The source to it is in the file pppppp--22..22..00ee..ttaarr..ggzz located on ssuunnssiittee..uunncc..eedduu in the //ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//ssyysstteemm//NNeettwwoorrkk//sseerriiaall directory. Version 2.2 and above are designed to be used only with the 1.2 and later kernels. Please don't use this version with the 1.1 series kernels as they are out of date for either the tty driver or the networking software. 22..44.. II jjuusstt oobbttaaiinneedd PPPPPP.. WWhhaatt ddoo II ddoo wwiitthh iitt?? RRead TThe FFine MMaterial available. Start by reading the RREEAADDMMEE file and then the RREEAADDMMEE..lliinnuuxx file. The documentation sources are listed below. 22..55.. ((WWhheerree''ss tthhee ddooccuummeennttaattiioonn?? IIss tthheerree aa HHOOWWTTOO??,, eettcc..)) WWhheerree aarree aaddddiittiioonnaall ssoouurrcceess ooff iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn ffoorr PPPPPP?? There are several sources of information for the PPP protocol as implemented under Linux. +o The RREEAADDMMEE file in the source package. +o The RREEAADDMMEE..lliinnuuxx file in the source package. +o The NNeett--22--HHOOWWTTOO document. +o The PPPPPP--HHOOWWTTOO document. +o The Network Administration Guide. +o The ppppppdd man page. +o The FAQ document for the comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup. The HOWTO and this FAQ are stored in the usual place for the Linux HOWTOs. That is currently on ssuunnssiittee..uunncc..eedduu in the directory //ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//ddooccss//HHOOWWTTOO. The Network Administration Guide is available in the //ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//ddooccss//LLPPDD//nneettwwoorrkk--gguuiiddee directory on sunsite. It is also published by O'Riellly and Associates. So, if you want a really professional document, then buy a copy from your local bookstore. The `mmaann' pages are included in the source package. You will probably have to move them to the normal man directory, //uussrr//mmaann//mmaann88 before the mmaann command may find them. Alternately, you may use nnrrooffff and mmoorree to view them directly. The FAQ for comp.protocols.ppp describes the PPP protocol itself and the various implementations. You will find the FAQ for the usenet news group, ccoommpp..pprroottooccoollss..PPPPPP, archived on rrttffmm..mmiitt..eedduu in the //uusseenneett directory. It is in eight parts at the present time. 22..66.. WWoouulldd ssoommeeoonnee pplleeaassee sseenndd mmee ssccrriippttss ffoorr PPPPPP ssoo tthhaatt II mmaayy sseeee hhooww tthheeyy aarree wwrriitttteenn?? There are a few scripts which are included with the source package for pppd. It will cover the normal types of access where you are requested to enter a UNIX login and password. Specific `scripts' for specific systems are not included. If you have problems with a specific connection then you should contact the help desk for your site, the local news group at the site, or the general usenet groups for Linux. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to answer questions for help on supplying a script for your specific system. 22..77.. WWhheerree sshhoouulldd II ppoosstt qquueessttiioonnss aabboouutt PPPPPP?? The primary usenet group for the PPP implementations is ccoommpp..pprroottooccoollss..PPPPPP or ccoommpp..ooss..lliinnuuxx..sseettuupp. Use this group for general questions such as "How do I use pppd?" or "Why doesn't this work?". Questions such as "Why wont pppd compile?" are generally linux related and belong on the comp.os.linux.networking group. Please don't use comp.os.linux.help; even if your site should still carry this obsolete news group. 22..88.. TThhee PPPPPP ssooffttwwaarree ddooeessnn''tt wwoorrkk.. HHEELLPP!!!!!! This is one of the most sickening questions. I realize that this is a plea for help. However, it is practically useless to post this message wwiitthh nnoo ootthheerr iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn. I, and most others, will only ignore it. Please see the question regarding errors which normally occur at the modem's disconnection. They are not the cause of a problem, only a symptom. Posting a message with only those errors is also meaningless. What is needed is the output of the system log (syslog) when you run the ppppppdd program with the option `ddeebbuugg'. In addition, if you are using chat then please use the `--vv' option to run the sequence with verbose output. Please include the output from the kernel's startup. This shows the various kernel hardware information such as your UART type, PPP version, etc. Please include all information that you can relating to the problem. However your system configuration, disk drive configuration, terminal type, mouse location and button status, etc. are irrelevant. What is important is the system to which your are trying to contact, the PPP (or terminal server) that they are using, the modem types and speed that you are using, etc. Take care and go through the output. Remove the references to the telephone number, your account name, and the password. They are not important to analyzing the problem and would pose a security risk to you if you published them to usenet. Also discard the lines which neither come from the kernel nor pppd. Do NNOOTT run the pppd program with the option `kkddeebbuugg 3311' and post that! If the problem warrants examining the data stream, then you will be contacted by email and asked to mail the trace. Usenet already costs too much for too many people. Information is written to various levels. The debug information is written to the debug level. The informational messages are written to the info level. The errors are written to the error level. Please include all levels the the `llooccaall22' group which come from the ppppppdd process. In addition, please do not delete the time stamp information. It is important. 22..99.. HHooww ddoo II uussee PPPPPP wwiitthh aa ssyysstteemm wwhhiicchh uusseess ddyynnaammiicc IIPP aassssiiggnn-- mmeennttss?? IItt aassssiiggnnss aa ddiiffffeerreenntt IIPP aaddddrreessss ttoo mmee wwiitthh eeaacchh ccaallll.. The assignment of the local IP address is a function of the options given to pppd and the IPCP protocol. You should use the `magic' IP address of 0.0.0.0 if you must specify the local IP address. Most people simply leave the local IP address out of the option list. The other option which is closely tied to this is called `noipdefault'. The noipdefault option instructs the pppd process to not attempt to guess the local IP address from your hostname and the IP addresses in the /etc/hosts file. Most people use this option when the IP address is dynamically assigned. However, this option does not mean `use dynamic IP addresses'. The use of dynamic IP addresses is automatic when the local IP address is not given. 22..1100.. HHooww ddoo II kknnooww wwhhaatt IIPP aaddddrreessss wwaass ggiivveenn ttoo mmee wwhheenn iitt iiss ddyynnaamm-- iiccaallllyy aassssiiggnneedd?? Use the /etc/ppp/ip-up hook. The local IP address is the fourth parameter. This will be executed when pppd knows the IP address for the local system. The fifth parameter is the remote IP address if you should wish to know this value as well. If you are curious about the value assigned then you may use the iiffccoonnffiigg program to display the current settings. It will show you the current values for both the local IP address and the IP address assigned to the remote under the P-t-P heading. 22..1111.. CCaann II uussee tthhee ssaammee llooccaall IIPP aaddddrreessss ffoorr eeaacchh lliinnee ooff aa PPPPPP sseerrvveerr?? Yes. The local address is not significant to the local system. You must have a unique rreemmoottee IP address. The routing is performed based upon the remote IP address and not the local IP address. 33.. OOtthheerr iimmpplleemmeennttaattiioonnss 33..11.. DDoo yyoouu kknnooww ooff aa iimmpplleemmeennttaattiioonn ffoorr PPPPPP ootthheerr tthhaann LLiinnuuxx?? II wwoouulldd lliikkee oonnee ffoorr HHPP--UUXX,, oorr AAIIXX,, oorr ...... ((yyoouu ffiillll iinn tthhee bbllaannkk)) ?? Check the PPP FAQ document mentioned above. HP-UX is supported by the commercial Morningstar package. AIX is in the current 2.2 pppd package. If you don't find one listed then post to the ccoommpp..pprroottooccoollss..PPPPPP group and not the Linux group. (Please don't mail me asking for "Do you know of a PPP package for ..."? These requests will now be `appropriately' filed. ;;--))) The pppd package placed on sunsite does not contain the code which would use the some of the ports which use the streams interface. This is due to the reason that the streams interface contains a restrictive copyright which prevents the commercial packaging of the source which contains the module. We, the people who have been working on the pppd package, have tried to contact the author of the original module for streams in an attempt to have the copyright changed. He was un- responsive at first. Now he can not be located. For this reason, and due to the fact that the sunsite site is for Linux, I decided to remove the AIX, Next, and any other port of pppd which involved the original streams code. The SunOS and Solaris ports aarree included since their streams implementation has been rewritten. You should continue to find the BSD variation as well as the Linux form in the package. If you wish the pppd code for a system which uses streams then you will have to consult the PPP-FAQ for the location of the pppd archive site near you. Alternately, you can use archie. Just don't use the mirrors for sunsite as they will not have the code. 33..22.. DDiidd yyoouu kknnooww tthhaatt tthheerree iiss aa pprrooggrraamm ccaalllleedd ``ddpp'? Yes, we know. The ddpp package was considered very early in the development stage quite a few months back. It is nice. It supports 'demand dial'. It also only works with systems which support streams. This is primarily the SunOS (Solaris) operating systems. The question of demand dial is covered later in this document. Linux, at the present time, does not supports streams. There are several other packages for PPP available on the `net'. The `portable PPP' package is very much like the TIA code. There is another package called simply `PPP'. There is code for PPP in the KA9Q package. The sslliirrpp and TTIIAA code will do PPP as well. Of all of the packages available, the pppd package was the closest to the requirements and functions of Linux to warrant the port. (If you want more information about these other packages, ask in the ccoommpp..pprroottooccoollss..PPPPPP group!) 33..33.. WWhhaatt RRFFCCss ddeessccrriibbee tthhee PPPPPP pprroottooccooll?? The current implementation of PPP is a mixture of several. The major portion of the PPP code is written against the RFCs 1331 and 1332. These RFCs were later obsoleted. 1331 was replaced by 1548 and that, in turn, was obsoleted by 1661 six months later. Most implementations of PPP will be happy to talk to the Linux PPP code. A complete list is in the PPP faq. [to quote the FAQ document]: All of 1134, 1171, and 1172 (and 1055, for that matter ::--)) have been obsoleted. They're interesting only if you want to debug a connection with an ancient PPP implementation, and you're wondering why (e.g.) it asked you for IIPPCCPP option 2 with a length of only 4, and Compression-Type 00xx00003377. (There's a lot of that still running around - be careful out there.) Linux PPP will automatically detect this condition and compensate for it. 44.. CCoommppaattiibbiilliittyy 44..11.. CCaann PPPPPP ttaallkk ttoo aa SSLLIIPP iinntteerrffaaccee?? No. SLIP works with SLIP. PPP works with PPP. Some vendors may offer products which work both as SLIP and PPP. However, they must be configured to run in one mode or the other. There is no present method to determine, based upon the protocol passed at the time of a connection, which combination of SLIP protocols or PPP is being requested. 44..22.. WWhhiicchh iiss bbeetttteerr?? PPPPPP oorr SSLLIIPP?? IITT DDEEPPEENNDDSS UUPPOONN MMAANNYY FFAACCTTOORRSS. The people who post this type of question have usually not read the NNeett--22--HHOOWWTTOO document. A good technical discussion is available at Morning Star's www server, wwwwww..mmoorrnniinnggssttaarr..ccoomm. 44..33.. IIss CCHHAAPP oorr PPAAPP bbeetttteerr ffoorr aauutthheennttiiccaattiioonn?? If you have the choice, use CHAP. Failing that, PAP is better than nothing. 44..44.. WWhhaatt aabboouutt CCHHAAPP wwhhiicchh MMiiccrroossoofftt uusseess wwiitthh WWiinnddoowwss NNTT?? CHAP is a cryptographic authentication protocol. It means that it takes some form of a key and will encrypt the response using a one-way encryption algorithm. The algorithm is negotiated at the time that the CHAP protocol is requested. The most common is called MD5. It has an encryption code of 05 in the CHAP request. Microsoft uses a DES algorithm which, until recently, was incompatible with the pppd process. If you wish to connect to a Windows NT server, there are a set of patches which are included with the pppd source code to support the DES style used by Microsoft. CCoonnttrraarryy ttoo wwhhaatt ssoommee uunn--iinnffoorrmmeedd ppeeooppllee bbeelliieevvee aatt SSttaannffoorrdd UUnniivveerrssiittyy bbeelliieevvee,, MMiiccrroossoofftt ddiidd nnoott jjuusstt ggoo aaggaaiinnsstt tthhee rreeccoommmmeennddaattiioonnss ooff tthhee IIEETTFF wwoorrkkiinngg ggrroouupp.. TThhee ccooddee vvaalluueess wweerree pprrooppeerrllyy rreeqquueesstteedd aanndd tthhee iimmpplleemmeennttaattiioonn hhaass bbeeeenn ffuullllyy ddooccuummeenntteedd.. 55.. AAuutthheennttiiccaattiioonn ffiilleess 55..11.. WWhhaatt ggooeess iinnttoo tthhee //eettcc//pppppp//ppaapp--sseeccrreettss file? Do you have a sam- ple? The PAP protocol is most often implemented as your user name and password. You need to include the name of the remote system, your account name, and the password. If the user on abbot wishes to call costello, the entry would be similar to the following. #account remote password IP address list abbott * firstbase To use PAP authentication with the simplest case, you should also include the 'user' option to specify which of the pap-secrets file entries is to be used. The option is explained in the pppd man page. However, the simplest for this example is: user abbott 55..22.. WWhhaatt ggooeess iinnttoo tthhee //eettcc//pppppp//cchhaapp--sseeccrreettss file? Do you have a sample? The most common problem is that people don't recognize that CHAP deals with a pair of secrets. Both computers involved in the link must have both secrets to work. For example, if aabbbboott wants to talk to ccoosstteelllloo, then aabbbboott's file would have: #remote local secret IP address list abbott costello firstbase 10.10.10.2 costello abbott who 10.10.10.1 And costello's file would have: #remote local secret IP address list abbott costello firstbase 10.10.10.2 costello abbott who 10.10.10.1 66.. CCoonnssttrruuccttiioonn pprroobblleemmss 66..11.. II ggeett ccoommppiillee eerrrroorrss wwhheenn II ttrryy ttoo ccoommppiillee tthhee kkeerrnneell The 2.2 package contains instructions which describe the steps needed to install the package. Briefly, you need to run the configure command. It will generate the links to the Makefile. Next, you need to run 'make kernel'. This will install the needed pieces should the need to be updated. Once the pieces have been installed, please rebuild the kernel at this time. Do this even if you have previously constructed the kernel to support PPP. The driver shipped with the 1.2 and early 1.3 kernels is not compatible with the 2.2 version of pppd. Once you have rebuilt the kernel then you may resume to build the pppd process, chat, and pppstats. There are problems with practically every version of the kernel and the pppd package. In the linux/Other.Patches directory of the source archive you will find a series of patches. Two of them need to be applied to the 1.2.13 kernel. The only one which you do not apply to the 1.2.13 kernel is the patch labeled "1.3". If you have an early version of the 1.3 kernel then you need to apply the two patches for the 1.3 kernel and the slhc files. After you have applied the patch, if you are using an old version of the include files, then you will have problems with the compilation of the structures in the ppp_defs.h header file. Edit this file and change the ""##iiff 00"" to be ""##iiff 11"". This is due to the definition of the u_int32_t typedef. The package will build with the 1.3.58 kernel and the 5.2.18 version of the libc and include files without the need for any patches. 77.. PPrroobblleemmss rruunnnniinngg ppppppdd 77..11.. ppppppdd says that version 0.0.0 is out of date You are attempting to run the 2.2 pppd process and you haven't rebuilt the drivers in the kernel. 77..22.. ppppppdd says that that the kernel is not configured for PPP. I know that I enabled the option and built the kernel. Make sure that you did rebuild the kernel and that you are running it. Make sure that you don't have an old copy of pppd on your disk and you are running that version. The previous version of pppd was stored on /usr/lib/ppp. Many people objected to this location. The 2.2 code has moved the ppppppdd, cchhaatt, and ppppppssttaattss to the /usr/sbin directory. If your scripts still reference //uussrr//lliibb//pppppp then you will probably run the old code. 77..33.. ppppppdd wont run unless you are root The pppd process needs to make changes to the networking system and this can only be done if you are the root user. If you wish to run ppppppdd from other than the root user then the pppd program needs to be secured 'suid to root'. chown root pppd chmod 4755 pppd If you wish to control the pppd access to a select group of people, then make the ppppppdd process owned by the group and do not permit all others to run the program. 77..44.. uunnaabbllee ttoo ccrreeaattee ppiidd ffiillee:: nnoo ssuucchh ffiillee oorr ddiirreeccttoorryy You need to create the directory //vvaarr//rruunn. On earlier Slackware distributions, this was a symbolic link to the //eettcc directory. This is a warning. The PPP software will work normally in spite of this message. However, the pppppp--ooffff script depends upon this file. It is a good idea to create the directory or make the link to the appropriate location. The posix header, ppaatthhss..hh, defines the location for the pid file under the name "__VVAARR__RRUUNN". If you wish to use a different directory for PPP and others, change the value for this define and rebuild the software. 77..55.. //eettcc//pppppp//ooppttiioonnss:: nnoo ssuucchh ffiillee oorr ddiirreeccttoorryy You need to create the directory //eettcc//pppppp and have a file called 'ooppttiioonnss' in that directory. It needs to be readable by the ppppppdd process (root). The file may be empty. To make an empty file use the `ttoouucchh' command. See the ppppppdd man page, ppppppdd..88, for a description of this file. 77..66.. CCoouulldd nnoott ddeetteerrmmiinnee llooccaall IIPP aaddddrreessss This happens with many configurations of the Telebit Netblazer. The problem is not the terminal server, but the site which has not configured the terminal server with a set of IP addresses. The Netblazer does not have your IP address. You do not have your IP address. The link will not work unless both IP addresses are known. +o The Netblazer does not have your IP address and you do not have your IP address. +o The Netblazer does know its IP address and you do not have its IP address. The link will not work unless both IP addresses are known. You must tell the Netblazer the IP addresses to be used. Use the local IP address and the remote IP address as a parameter to the pppd process. Use the pppd option format of: local_ip:remote_ip (That is the local IP address, a colon, and the remote IP address.) 77..77.. CCoouulldd nnoott ddeetteerrmmiinnee rreemmoottee IIPP aaddddrreessss See the previous answer. 77..88.. II kkeeeepp ggeettttiinngg tthhee mmeessssaaggee ttoo tthhee eeffffeecctt tthhaatt tthhee mmaaggiicc nnuummbbeerr iiss aallwwaayyss NNAAKKeedd.. TThhee ssyysstteemm wwiillll nnoott ccoonnnneecctt.. There is a one in over four billion chance that the two systems have chosen the same magic number. If you get a continual failure about the magic number, the chances that this is a fluke will geometrically reduce. The two most common reasons for this failure are: +o The remote PPP software is not running when you think it is. Is the remote system configured to run PPP? Is the PPP process in the expected location? Is the privileges suitable so that you may run it? This would indicate that the shell is doing the local echo of the data. This is the more common reason. +o The modem has disconnected immediately upon making the connection and logging you on to the remote. Most modems are configured to echo the data sent to them and you are seeing the local echo from the modem. In either case, the Linux system is sending data to the remote which is being fed immediately back into the serial receiver. This is not an acceptable condition. You have what is called a "lloooopp". 77..99.. pprroottooccooll rreejjeecctt ffoorr pprroottooccooll ffffffbb This usually occurs when you are trying to connect to a Xyplex terminal server. Version 5.1 of the Xyplex terminal server software, according to Xyplex, has numerous problems with PPP. It is strongly recommended that you update the Xyplex software to at least version 5.3. If you must use Xyplex version 5.1, then use the pppd option "vvjj--mmaaxx-- sslloottss 33" to limit the number of slots to three. The problem on the Xyplex server is that it will accept the request for the default 16 slots, but fail to operate beyond the third slot. It should have return a NAK frame with the limit, but it does not. Alternately, you can disable the Van Jacobson header compression with the option "--vvjj". 77..1100.. TThhee PPPPPP ssooffttwwaarree ccoonnnneeccttss,, sseennddss qquuiittee aa ffeeww ffrraammeess,, bbuutt ssttiillll ddooeess nnoott sseeeemm ttoo ccoonnnneecctt.. WWhhyy iiss tthhaatt?? Linux does not support RPI modems. If your modem is RPI then you will have to find a different modem. This is not likely to change in the future given the statements made by Rockwell's management. Examine the system log when you use the "ddeebbuugg" option. (You will need the system log data anyway if you are going to ask for help.) If the trace shows that it is sending the LLCCPP-request frame over and over again and the id number is not incrementing then you are not exchanging frames with the remote PPP software. Three common reasons for this are: +o You don't have the PPP software running on the other end. You are sending the PPP frames to some other program which is probably saying "What is this #$%^ ?" Please make sure that you have the PPP software started on the other end before you enter the PPP protocol sequence. Try to use a normal modem program and go through the logon sequence that you would normally do. Do you see the PPP frames being sent to you? The PPP frames are fairly distinctive. They will be about 40 characters in length and contain several {{ characters. They should not have a carriage return character after them and are sent out in a burst with a pause between the bursts. +o The line is not "eight bit clean". This means that you need to have eight data bits, no parity, and one stop bit. The PPP link absolutely requires eight data bits. The pppd software will automatically put the line into eight data bits, no parity, and one stop bit. The remote must match this configuration or framing and parity errors may occur. PPP will escape characters. It is not possible for it to escape bits as kermit does. PPP will _n_o_t work with a seven bit communications link. +o The remote is configured to require authentication such as PPAAPP or CCHHAAPP. You have not configured the local system to use this feature. Therefore, the remote is discarding all of your frames until it sees a valid authentication frame from you. Since you are not configured to generate the frames, the IIPPCCPP frames which you send are being ignored. In this case, either configure the remote to not expect authentication or configure the local system to do authentication and supply the proper secrets. Examine the receipt of the LCP configure frame. If it shows an 'auth' type, then the remote is configured for authentication. 77..1111.. TThhee //eettcc//pppppp//iipp--uupp ssccrriippttss wwoonntt wwoorrkk.. The pppd process launches the program at the location /etc/ppp/ip-up when the IP layer goes up. It gives it parameters which define the line status. Such things include the device name, communications speed, and IP addresses. However, what may not be clear is that it treats this file as a pprrooggrraamm. It is not a script. The program is started by using the exec() function of Linux. What this means is that if you wish to use a script for these programs, then you must do two things. +o You need to have the file marked as executable with chmod. The proper mode for the file should be mode 100. Mode 500 is acceptable if you wish to read the file and mode 700 is acceptable if you wish to write to the file. The file should be owned by the root user. +o The file must have as the first line the sequence: #!/bin/sh The # character must be in the first character position of the very first line of the file. The interpreter program, /bin/sh in this case, may be any program which is expected to run the script. Most people will use the Bourne shell for this purpose. It is commonly stored in the location /bin/sh. Other commonly used interpreters are perl and csh. What is important is that the first two characters of the file be the # and ! characters respectively. 77..1122.. II ccaann''tt ccoonnnneecctt ttoo tthhee mmeerriitt nneettwwoorrkk.. Some users of the merit network have indicated that it needs PAP. Did you try PAP authentication? 88.. DDIIPP 88..11.. DDIIPP ddooeess nnoott hhaavvee ssuuppppoorrtt ffoorr PPPPPP''ss mmooddee The current version of dip-uri supports PPP in that it will execute the pppd process when you execute `mode PPP'. However, there are many options which are needed for the proper operation of pppd. Since dip does not pass these to the program, they must be stored in the /etc/ppp/options file. The dip program controls the establishment of the SLIP link. It controls the SLIP link with the aid of slattach, ifconfig, and route. These programs may be used to establish a SLIP link. They are not useful for the establishment of a PPP link. The dip program may be used to dial the telephone and start the PPPPPP software on the remote system. It is best used in this mode as the parameter to the `ccoonnnneecctt' option. However, you have the option to use dip to control the link. It is not important how pppd be executed to run the PPP link. It is only important that it be executed as it is a mandatory program for the PPP protocol. While this is not a FAQ for dip, there is a common problem with dip and pppd. The dip process has the absolute pathname to the pppd process embedded within it. Until recently, the location for pppd was /usr/lib/ppp/pppd. It has moved to the /usr/sbin/pppd location. So, if you are unable to get dip to start pppd then check the pathnames in dip. Additional information about the dip process is in the Net-2-HOWTO document. 99.. PPrroocceessss tteerrmmiinnaattiioonn 99..11.. IIss tthheerree aa ``ddiipp --kk' for PPP? No. There is no `ddiipp --kk'. In the chat directory, there is a `PPPPPP--ooffff' script. This will stop the PPP link in the same manner as the 'ddiipp --kk'. I have included it below. (Cut it out. Store it in its own file. Make the file executable with chmod.) ______________________________________________________________________ #!bin/sh DEVICE=ppp0 # # If the ppp0 pid file is present then the program is running. Stop it. if [ -r /var/run/$DEVICE.pid ]; then kill -INT `cat /var/run/$DEVICE.pid` # # If the kill did not work then there is no process running for this # pid. It may also mean that the lock file will be left. You may wish # to delete the lock file at the same time. if [ ! "$?" = "0" ]; then rm -f /var/run/$DEVICE.pid echo "ERROR: Removed stale pid file" exit 1 fi # # Success. Let pppd clean up its own junk. echo "PPP link to $DEVICE terminated." exit 0 fi # # The PPP process is not running for ppp0 echo "ERROR: PPP link is not active on $DEVICE" exit 1 ______________________________________________________________________ 99..22.. PPPPPP ddooeess nnoott hhaanngguupp tthhee mmooddeemm wwhheenn iitt tteerrmmiinnaatteess There are several reasons for this. +o Did you use the pppd `mmooddeemm' parameter? This parameter controls whether or not the ppppppdd process is to control and honor the signals reflecting the modem status. This parameter is explained in the man page for ppppppdd. +o Do you have the modem presenting the DCD signal and honoring DTR? The Hayes sequence for this is usually "&C1". If you reset the modem during the connection sequence with "ATZ" then ensure that your modem is configured correctly. The DTR signal is generated by the computer and instructs the modem to disconnect. Hayes sequence for this is usually "&D1" or "&D2" with "&D2" being the preferred setting for PPP. Many manufacturers will ignore the DTR condition in their `factory defaults' setting. +o Did you use a cheap cable which does not pass the DCD signal? Macintosh `Classic' cables are notorious for this problem. The Macintosh Classic does not use this signal. +o For dial-in connections, did you exec the pppd process properly? The pppd process should be `exec'ed from the script rather than simply executed. If you attempt to simply run the pppd process then it will be the shell which will receive the SIGHUP hangup signal and not the pppd process. The `shell' script should have a format similar to the following: ___________________________________________________________________ #!/bin/sh exec pppd -detach modem ... ___________________________________________________________________ +o The use of ddiipp and ddiiaalldd has, on occasion, interfered with the ability of pppd to sense the loss of the carrier. In this case, you should use the lcp-echo-request and lcp-echo-failure options to detect the loss of the connection in-band. 1100.. DDaattaa TTrraannssffeerr rreellaatteedd iissssuueess 1100..11.. TThhee ffttpp transfers seems to die when I do a `put' operation. They will work correctly if I `get' a file. Why? Do you have the flow control enabled? Flow control is set by the pppd option ccrrttssccttss for RTS/CTS and xxoonnxxooffff for XON/XOFF. If you don't enable the flow control then you will probably overrun the modem's buffers and this will prove to be disastrous with vj header compression. 1100..22.. HHooww ddoo II uussee XXOONN//XXOOFFFF ffoorr ffllooww ccoonnttrrooll?? The better flow control is CTS/RTS. However, if you can not do the hardware flow control with the signals CTS and RTS, then use XON/XOFF. The following three steps need to be performed. +o You need to specify the pppd option xxoonnxxooffff. This tells the pppd process to configure the serial device for XON/XOFF flow control and to load the two characters into the tty driver. +o You need to specify the XON and XOFF characters in the pppd parameter aassyynnccmmaapp. This tells the remote system that is should quote the XON and XOFF characters when it wishes to send them to you. It is normally specified as the pppd parameter `aassyynnccmmaapp aa00000000'. +o Of course, don't forget to tell the modem to use XON/XOFF flow control. My ZZyyXXEELL modem uses a sequence `&R1&H4' to do this. 1100..33.. TThhee mmooddeemm sseeeemmss ttoo aallwwaayyss ccoonnnneecctt aatt aa ssttrraannggee rraattee.. WWhheenn II uussee mmiinniiccoomm,, tthhee mmooddeemm wwiillll aallwwaayyss uussee 1144440000.. HHoowweevveerr,, PPPPPP iiss uussiinngg 99660000 oorr 77220000 oorr eevveenn 22440000.. HHooww ddoo II ffiixx tthhiiss?? Put the desired rate as an option to the pppd process. If you don't put the rate, then pppd process will use whatever rate is set currently at the time. Not all programs will restore all of the parameters to the previous settings properly upon exit. This may lead to strange rates configured for the serial device. Linux does not support modems which use the RPI (RRockwell PProtocol IInterface) proprietary specification. Given the proprietary nature of the specification (even if you signed a NDA Rockwell will not release the code needed to interface to the modem) it is eexxttrreemmeellyy unlikely that Linux will eevveerr support this modem. The only solution, should you have a RPI modem, is to take it back to the dealer and get one which does not use RPI. Some of the catch phrases to avoid are modems which are marked as having error correction in software, "windows" compatible, or "requiring a special driver" for full operation. These usually indicate that the modem uses RPI. 1100..44.. TThhee ffttpp transfers seems to be very slow when I do a `get' oper- ation. The `put' operation is much faster. Why? Did you specify the option: aassyynnccmmaapp 00 when you ran pppd? If you forgot the option, the peer must quote (double) all of the control characters in the range from 00 to 1F (hex). This will result in a statistical loss of about 12.5% in speed for all of the data which you receive. Did you configure the remote system? If so, did you forget flow control on its modem? 1100..55.. TThhee pprrooxxyyaarrpp ffuunnccttiioonn ffaaiillss ttoo ffiinndd tthhee hhaarrddwwaarree aaddddrreessss.. Use the pppppp--22..11..22dd..ttaarr..ggzz package. The ppppppdd process was erroneously compiled with the 1.1.8 kernel and it used NNeett--33 rather than NNeett--22 definitions. Additionally, you should refer to the proxy-ARP mini-HOWTO about the requirements for using proxy-ARP. The 2.1 package had a limit of 64 network devices. At the the that the proxyarp function was written, 64 seemed to be a very likely limit as most people had one or two ethernet controllers. This is no longer the case when we consider that some systems routinely have 128 network devices. The 2.2 package has raised the limit to 256 network devices. It is a compile-time define in the sys-linux.c module. 1111.. RRoouuttiinngg aanndd ootthheerr pprroobblleemmss 1111..11.. MMyy rroouuttee ttoo tthhee rreemmoottee kkeeeeppss ddiissaappppeeaarriinngg!! IItt llaasstt ffoorr aabboouutt 33 mmiinnuutteess aanndd tthheenn tthhee rroouuttee jjuusstt ggooeess aawwaayy.. HHeellpp!! This is not a question for PPP. Hint: DDOONN''TT RRUUNN rroouutteedd! 1111..22.. II wwoouulldd lliikkee ttoo aattttaacchh mmyy ootthheerr ccoommppuutteerrss oonn mmyy nneettwwoorrkk ttoo tthhee IInntteerrnneett tthhrroouugghh mmyy PPPPPP ccoonnnneeccttiioonn.. II hhaavvee oonnllyy tthhee oonnee IIPP aaddddrreessss wwhhiicchh iiss aassssiiggnneedd ttoo mmee ffrroomm mmyy sseerrvviiccee pprroovviiddeerr.. ((IItt mmaayy eevveenn hhaavvee bbeeeenn ddyynnaammiiccaallllyy aassssiiggnneedd..)) HHooww mmaayy II ddoo tthhiiss?? You may not. At least, you can't do it in the manner that you would normally want to do it. The problem is that your provider would not know about the IP addresses of your local network and therefore wont route the frames to your local system. There are other solutions, however. +o You may telnet to your one computer running pppd and then use telnet or ftp to reach out to the rest of the Internet. This is not really much better then just using the computer directly, but it does work for simple things. +o You may run a recent 1.3 kernel and use the "IP Masquerade" option. For instructions on how to use this facility you should join the linux-net developer list or refer to the Net-2-HOWTO document. +o You may run the ssoocckkss program on your PPP system. This will perform the same facility as the IP Masquerade but it will take modified clients. The advantage is that the socks program has been around for some years and many clients will understand the concept of a 'proxy' server which is needed to work with socks. 1111..33.. II ccaann rreeaacchh tthhee rreemmoottee sseerrvveerr,, bbuutt II ccaann nnoott ggeett aannyywwhheerree eellssee.. Did you forget the `ddeeffaauullttrroouuttee' parameter to pppd? This parameter adds a default route into your routing system so that frames to all other IP addresses will be sent to the PPP device. The PPP software will not replace the default route if you have one already set when you run pppd. This is done to prevent people from destroying their default route to the ethernet routers by accident. A warning message is written to the system log if the defaultroute parameter is not performed for this reason. 1111..44.. II hhaavvee aa ddeeffaauulltt rroouuttee aanndd II ssttiillll ccaann''tt ggeett aannyywwhheerree eellssee!! NNooww wwhhaatt?? The problem then is not with the local Linux system. It most likely is routing problem on the remote end. The remote system is not configured for `IIPP ffoorrwwaarrddiinngg'. It is an RFC requirement that this option NNOOTT be enabled by default. You must enable the option. For Linux systems, you will need to build the kernel and specify that you want IP forwarding/gatewaying. The remote computers need a route back to you just as you need a route to them. This may be accomplished by one of four methods. Each has advantages and limitations. You need to do one and only one of these. +o Use a host route. At each host on the remote system, add a host route to your Linux IP address with the gateway being the terminal server that you use for your local access. This will work if you have a small number of host systems and a simple network without bridges, routers, gateways, etc. +o Use a network route. Subdivide the remote IP addresses so that your local Linux IP address and the remote terminal server address and the remote terminal server's ethernet address is on the same IP network. This will work if you have the IP addresses to spare. It will work very well if you have a Class-B IP network and can afford to put the all of the remote addresses on the same IP network. Then add a network route on each of the gateways and routers so that any address of the remote network is sent to the terminal server. Most configurations have many hosts but few routers. (At ssiiii..ccoomm, we have over 300 active host systems with only 3 routers.) +o Use ggaatteedd on all of the gateways and on the terminal server. This will cause the terminal server to broadcast to the gateways that it can accept the frames for your IP address. Since the hosts will have a default route to one of the gateways, the gateways will generate the ICMP re-direct frame and the specific host will automatically add its host route. +o Use proxy ARP on the terminal server. This will only work if your remote IP address is in the same IP domain as one of the domains for the network cards. There is no clear solution. You must choose one of these. If your remote router requires to receive RIP frames in order to update the route to your system then you should use the bbccaassttdd program on sunsite.unc.edu. This will generate the RIP frames without actually running gated. 1111..55.. II ccaann nnoott ppiinngg mmyy llooccaall IIPP aaddddrreessss You are not able to do this because you wont normally have a route to the address. This is the normal operating environment. If you wish to ping your own system then use the loopback address of 127.0.0.1. You may be able to ping the remote address. However, some terminal servers may not allow this as the address may be 'phony' to them. It depends upon their environment. In general, don't try to ping either address. Choose a third address which is well known to be available on the remote network such as one of your name server IP address. While the PPP software will not perform this task, you may add the route table entry yourself once the link has been established. The syntax for the route statement is: route add -host 192.187.163.32 lo where the local IP address is represented as 192.187.163.32 in this example. This will tell the network software to route all frames destined to your local IP address to the loopback adapter. Once you add the appropriate route to the local IP address then you may use this address as the target to IP frames. You will be responsible for deleting the route when the link goes down. 1122.. IInntteerraaccttiioonnss wwiitthh ootthheerr PPPPPP iimmpplleemmeennttaattiioonnss 1122..11.. II aamm uussiinngg aa TTrruummppeett (for MMSSDDOOSS) and the connection simply ter- minates. Why is this happening? TTrruummppeett does not like any VJ header compression. Use the pppd option "--vvjj" to turn it off. 1122..22.. II aamm uussiinngg ddpp--33..11..22 (with SSuunnOOSS) and the system will not allow me to use anything but ppiinngg, or nnssllooookkuupp. Why is this happening? There is a bug in the 33..11..22 version of dp. Please get the 33..11..22aa or later file from the dp ftp home site hhaarrbboorr..eeccnn..ppuurrdduuee..eeccuu. Until you can put the patch into dp, disable the vj header compression. 1122..33.. II ccaann nnoott ccoonnnneecctt ttoo//wwiitthh mmyy WWiinnddoowwss NNTT ccooddee Microsoft has chosen to support a non-standard authentication protocol with Windows NT. That is their right to do so provided that they have registered the protocol number with the IIAANNAA. (They have.) If the `accept only Microsoft encrypted authentication' check box is set in the phone book entry, the connection will not complete. This setting mandates that the Windows NT system only exchange PPP authentication with another Microsoft PPP implementation. The current pppd 2.2.0e code has patches to support this authentication protocol. However, the support is available in one direction only. It will connect to a Windows NT server. It will not permit a Windows NT server to dial-up the Linux system and connect with this protocol. However, these patches for the Microsoft authentication require the use of a DES library. Please respect the governmental regulations concerning the distribution of this form of 'munitions'. If you can not use this package and you have the option of changing the settings on the Windows NT system then go to the Windows NT Phone Book settings, advanced, security settings and ensure that the `Accept any authentication including clear text' box is cchheecckkeedd and the `accept only Microsoft encrypted authentication' is nnoott cchheecckkeedd. The other check boxes may be checked or not as you see fit. Then use PAP on the Linux side. Put your Windows NT account name and password into the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets file. The Microsoft authentication sequence is a PAP style authentication with their DES encryption algorithm for the passwords. Normal PAP sends the passwords in clear text. This would violate their C2 security goals. Versions of the Linux PPP code earlier than 2.1.2c have a flaw in their decoding of the authentication request. They will not work with a Windows NT system as they will not negotiate the proper authentication. Please used 2.1.2c or later if you wish to connect to Windows NT. The current version, 2.2 or 2.1.2d if you need 1.1 kernel support, should be used if possible. Scott Hutton <shutton@habanero.ucs.indiana.edu> sent me the following: Basically, NT RAS (Remote Access Services) will drop your connection if you REJ anything critical (i.e., authentication protocol). So, the trick was to create a mostly bogus chap-secrets file. Mine has "" * "" in it. This causes pppd to send a NAK rather than a REJ. With the SPAP registry key removed, the next protocol attempted is PAP (which is what I'm using). Other points are to make sure that *only* TCP/IP services are enabled in RAS (not NetBEUI nor IPX [EEdd:: IIPPXX iiss bbeeiinngg aaddddrreesssseedd.. UUnnttiill iitt iiss iinnssttaalllleedd pprrooppeerrllyy,, tthhiiss iiss pprroobbaabbllyy aa ggoooodd tthhiinngg ttoo ddiissaabbllee aass wweellll..]]). I also had to fiddle with a couple of other registry keys to kill timeouts (which are problematic when you're only doing TCP/IP): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\eSYSTEM\eCurrentControlSet\eServices\eRemoteAccess\eParameters Autodisconnect: REG_DWORD: 0 and to get my routing to work correctly: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\eSYSTEM\eCurrentControlSet\eServices\eRasArp\eParameters DisableOtherSrcPackets: REG_DWORD: 0 For completeness, the key that needs to be disabled to eliminate SPAP: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\eSYSTEM\eCurrentControlSet\eServices\eRasMan\ePPP\eSPAP 1133.. OOtthheerr mmeessssaaggeess wwrriitttteenn ttoo tthhee ssyysstteemm lloogg 1133..11.. AAllaarrmm This is not a problem. It means that a timer has expired. Timers are a necessary part of the protocol establishment phase. 1133..22.. SSIIGGHHUUPP The pppd process has received a HUP signal. The HUP signal is generated by the tty software when the remote system has disconnected the modem link. It means that the modem has put the 'telephone receiver back on the hook', or, 'Hung UP' the connection. The kill program may also be used to send this signal to the pppd process. The pppd process will terminate the link in an orderly fashion when it receives this signal. 1133..33.. SSIIGGIINNTT The pppd process has received an INT signal. The INT signal is generated by the console software when you press the Ctrl-C key combination and pppd is the foreground process. The kill program may also be used to send this signal to the pppd process. In fact, the recommended method to terminate the pppd link is to send the process an INT. See the question relating to "dip -k" for a script which will perform this task. The pppd process will terminate the link in an orderly fashion when it receives this signal. 1133..44.. UUnnkknnoowwnn pprroottooccooll ((cc002255)) rreecceeiivveedd!!. The remote wishes to exchange Link Quality Reporting protocol with the Linux system. This protocol is presently not supported. This is not an error. It is merely saying that it has received the request and will tell the remote that "I can't do this now. Don't bother me with this!" The Morning Star PPP package will always try to do LQR protocol. This is normal. 1133..55.. UUnnkknnoowwnn pprroottooccooll ((8800ffdd)) rreecceeiivveedd!!. The remote wishes to exchange Compression Control Protocol with the Linux system. This type of protocol is layered upon the basic data protocol and will, if successfully negotiated, result in a fewer number of bytes transmitted for the frame. This means that the transfer will be quicker. However, there are many types of compressors which are used under the general 'umbrella' of a Compression Control Protocol. The 2.2 PPP package understands only one; the BSD compressor. This compressor works very similar to the Unix 'compress' program and uses a LZW compressor. Depending upon the size of the code, there can be a significant amount of kernel space needed to hold the compression and decompression dictionaries. This should not be used if you have a limited memory space and should not even be contemplated if you have 8Meg or less real (RAM) memory. In those cases you should invest in a decent modem which support compression. Unless both sides can agree upon the type of compression the compression will not be used. Another common compressor is called Predictor-1. This will take less memory and run faster. However, its compression is not as good in that it will send a little more data than the equivalent frame given to the BSD compressor. Many commercial terminal servers will employ a compressor called "Stacker(TM) LZW" or LZS protocol. This is a commercial compression agent. Apparently Stacker will give you a license for no charge. However, a specific license is required and that will usually prevent it being included with the pppd process. The 2.3 package will additionally include the compressor known as 1133..66.. TThhee ccoonnnneeccttiioonn ffaaiillss wwiitthh eerrrroorrss ""iiooccttll((TTIIOOCCGGEETTDD)):: II//OO eerrrroorr" or "iiooccttll((PPPPPPIIOOCCSSIINNPPSSIIGG)):: II//OO eerrrroorr". What now? Look at the boot messages when you boot the kernel. If it says "PPPPPP vveerrssiioonn 00..11..22" then you have an old version of the PPPPPP..cc driver. If it says "PPPPPP vveerrssiioonn 00..22..77" then you have the current driver, for the 2.1.2 package however, it was not built with the same set of defines for the ioctl numbers. Ensure that you have only one file called "iiff__pppppp..hh". It should be located in the kernel's iinncclluuddee//lliinnuuxx directory. Once you have done this, rebuild the kernel and the pppd process. If it says "PPPPPP vveerrssiioonn 22..22..00" then you are using the driver for the 2.2.0 package. This version of the driver will only work with the 2.2 series of the pppd package. The 2.2 pppd program will only work with this version of the driver. 1133..77.. SSoommeettiimmeess tthhee mmeessssaaggeess ""iiooccttll((PPPPPPIIOOCCGGDDEEBBUUGG)):: II//OO eerrrroorr", "iiooccttll((TTIIOOCCSSEETTDD)):: II//OO eerrrroorr" and "iiooccttll((TTIIOOCCNNXXCCLL)):: II//OO eerrrroorr" occur. Why? The remote system has disconnected the telephone. The tty drivers will re-establish the proper tty discipline and these errors are the result of the ppppppdd process trying to do the same thing. These are to be expected. 1133..88.. MMyy iiffccoonnffiigg has strange output for PPP. Usually the ifconfig program reports information similar to the following: ppp0 Link encap UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00 ... inet addr 192.76.32.2 P-t-P 129.67.1.65 Mask 255.255.255.0 UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING MTU 1500 Metric 1 The information is for display purposes only. If you are using a recent kernel then update the nettools package with the current one on ssuunnaaccmm..sswwaann..aacc..uukk in the directory //ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//nneettwwoorrkkiinngg//nneettttoooollss. 1133..99.. TThhee ffiillee //pprroocc//nneett//ddeevv seems to be empty Did you just issue the command "llss --ll //pprroocc//nneett" and are wondering why the size is zero? If so, this is normal. Instead, issue the command: cat /proc/net/dev You should not find the file empty. The size is always shown as zero, but that is the 'proc' file system. Don't believe the size. Do the command. The 'more', 'less', and 'most' programs may not be used to view the file directly. If you wish to use these programs, use it as follows: cat /proc/net/dev | less 1133..1100.. TThhee kkeerrnneell rreeppoorrttss tthhaatt tthhee PPPPPP ddeevviicceess aarree bbeeiinngg uunnlliinnkkeedd wwhheenn tthhee ssyysstteemm iiss bbeeiinngg ssttaarrtteedd.. This is not a problem. The message is the result of the ppp driver calling the procedure 'unregister_netdev'. This permits the ppp driver to dynamically allocate the devices as they are needed. There is no real limit to the number of devices which may be created. For the sake of setting a limit, the value of 256 was chosen as the maximum number of devices. Should you find that this is too small then you may change the define in the ppp.c code to make it any value that you wish or supply the value when you use the dynamically loaded module. If you are receiving these messages then you have an old version of the ppp.c driver. Please consider upgrading the driver as the old scheme of calling dev_unlink is `bad'. 1133..1111.. II jjuusstt cchheecckkeedd //pprroocc//nneett//ddeevv aanndd tthheerree aarree nnoo PPPPPP ddeevviicceess.. WWhheerree ddiidd tthheeyy ggoo?? They went nowhere. They were all unlinked during the startup of the system. Please see the previous question for additional information. 1144.. NNeettwwoorrkk rroouuttiinngg iissssuueess ((uussiinngg PPPPPP aass aa ``cchheeaapp'' bbrriiddggee)) 1144..11.. SSllaattttaacchh and iiffccoonnffiigg don't work like SLIP Do not use ssllaattttaacchh and iiffccoonnffiigg with PPP. These are used for SLIP. The ppppppdd process does these functions at the appropriate time. These must occur after the LLCCPP and IIPPCCPP protocols have been exchanged. You can not replace ppppppdd with ssllaattttaacchh and iiffccoonnffiigg. Most of the protocol support for PPP is in the ppppppdd process. Only the IP (and IIPPXX when it is completed) processing is in the kernel. The host route to the remote system will be automatically added by pppd. There is no option to NOT add the route. The pppd process will terminate if the route could not be added. The default route may or may not be added. This is controlled by the option `ddeeffaauullttrroouuttee'. If you have a default route, it will not be changed. If you must do routing for an entire network, then put the route command into the //eettcc//pppppp//iipp--uupp script. The parameters to the script are: $0 - name of the script (/etc/ppp/ip-up or /etc/ppp/ip-down) $1 - name of the network device (such as ppp0) $2 - name of the tty device (such as /dev/cua0) $3 - speed of the tty device in Bits Per Second (such as 38400) $4 - the local IP address in dotted decimal notation $5 - the remote IP address in dotted decimal notation $6 - the value of the ipparam parameter 1144..22.. II wwaanntt tthhee rroouuttee ttoo tthhee nneettwwoorrkk aanndd nnoott tthhee rroouuttee ttoo tthhee hhoosstt.. On ssuunnssiittee there is a package called ddeevviinnffoo..ttaarr..ggzz. It contains some useful little programs which will extract the data from the device and to do various things with the dotted IP addresses. The documentation is in the man pages in the file. For example, if you want to route the entire IP domain to the remote, the following may be used in //eettcc//pppppp//iipp--uupp. Of course, if the values are not variable, then simply use the appropriate entry in the route command. ______________________________________________________________________ # Obtain the netmask for the ppp0 (or whatever) device NETMASK = `devinfo -d $1 -t mask` # Obtain the IP domain (without the host address by removing the extra bits) DOMAIN = `netmath -a $5 $NETMASK` # Do the network route now that the IP domain is known route -net add $DOMAIN gw $5 ______________________________________________________________________ 1155.. OOtthheerr ffeeaattuurreess aanndd pprroottooccoollss 1155..11.. WWhhaatt aabboouutt ssuuppppoorrtt ffoorr ``ddeemmaanndd ddiiaall' Use the ddiiaalldd package. This is on sunsite in the same directory as the PPP source, //ppuubb//LLiinnuuxx//ssyysstteemm//NNeettwwoorrkk//sseerriiaall. 1155..22.. WWhhaatt aabboouutt ``ffiilltteerriinngg' There are no plans to put filtering into the PPP code. The 1.3 kernel supports a firewall option and you should use that rather than attempt to find a method of putting firewall logic into a network device driver. Use either the iippffww or iippffwwaaddmm programs to define the rules for the firewall code in the kernel. 1155..33.. HHooww aabboouutt IIPPXX? It is in the 2.2.0e package. 1155..44.. HHooww aabboouutt NNEETTBBIIOOSS?? There is a netbios PPP protocol. However, your better solution would be to use TCP/IP and the `ssaammbbaa' code. Microsoft and others have used Netbios PPP protocol. The nbfcp protocol is a public document and available from several sources. The Netbios protocol is not a valid address family at the present time for Linux. Until Linux supports the protocol, there is little need to support Netbios over PPP for Linux. 1155..55.. II nneeeedd IISSDDNN ssuuppppoorrtt.. IIss tthheerree aannyy?? ISDN support revolves around having a working ISDN driver. The present design of the PPP driver does not lend itself well to the concept of a block of data being received. This is being changed. A driver for the Sonix interface is being developed. 1155..66.. II wwoouulldd lliikkee mmuullttii--ppooiinntt ssuuppppoorrtt.. IIss tthheerree aannyy ssuuppppoorrtt?? Multi-point would be nice. I am not aware of anyone working on multi- point support at the present time. 1155..77.. HHooww aabboouutt jjuusstt ssttaannddaarrdd ssyynncchhrroonnoouuss PPPPPP?? There are small changes needed to support a serial interface which uses synchronous communications. The redesign of the PPP driver will help with this function as well. Kate Marika Alhola has expressed an interest in writing such a synchronous driver for her hardware. You should contact her at kate@iti.fi or kate@nic.funet.fi for further information. She informs me that the current status of sync ppp is, that I have had it few months in "production" use talking with Cisco(TM) in speeds 64K and 256K. The source is under the GPL license and it may be found in ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/Linux/kernel/xnet-sync-driver-1.0.tar.gz. 1166.. MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss 1166..11.. DDoo yyoouu hhaavvee aa PPPPPP ccoommppaattiibbllee mmaaiill rreeaaddeerr?? Huh? You have the wrong group if you want MSDOS. PPP has nothing to do with the mail user agent. All of the mail agents are compatible with PPP. 1166..22.. HHooww aabboouutt aa nneewwss rreeaaddeerr?? Refer to the previous answer. 1177.. QQuueessttiioonnss aabboouutt cchhaatt 1177..11.. MMyy mmooddeemm wwoonntt ddiiaall wwhheenn II rruunn cchhaatt The modem is required to be in the command mode to issue dial commands. If your modem is 'online' then characters sent to the modem will be sent to the remote system. If possible, configure the modem to monitor the DTR signal and to return to the command mode when the DTR signal dropps. This will permit the computer to force the modem back to the command mode when the pppd process terminates at the end of a connection. It will then be in the proper state when the next execution attempts to dial the telephone. If you cant do this then you should change the dial sequence so that it is similar to the following. It will ensure that the modem is in the command state prior to attempting to send the dial sequence. TIMEOUT 3 "" \rAT OK-+++\c-OK AT&D2&C1 TIMEOUT 60 OK ATDT555-1212 CONNECT The commands will change the timeout period to three seconds. This accommodates the gguuaarrdd time period used by many modems. It will then send AATT to the modem and look for its response of OOKK. If it is not received in the three seconds, it will send the ++++++ sequence to the modem and wait for the modem to present the expected OOKK response. Once it receives the valid response it will configure the modem and dial the telephone number. 1177..22.. TThhee mmooddeemm ddiiaallss oonnllyy oonn eevveerryy sseeccoonndd aatttteemmpptt Please refer to the above answer. It is usually the same issue. 1177..33.. TThhee cchhaatt ssccrriipptt ssttooppss aafftteerr sseennddiinngg tthhee aaccccoouunntt nnaammee aanndd iitt nneevveerr rreecceeiivveess tthhee ppaasssswwoorrdd pprroommpptt.. Some systems, notably SCO, will flush the receive buffers after writing the prompts for user name and password. The chat program normally transmits the response immediately upon seeing the prompt. The result is that the reply from chat is flushed by SCO. The chat program continues to wait for the password prompt. However, the remote system is still waiting for the user to enter the account name. The solution is simple. Slow down the responses from chat so that there is time for the remote system to flush the receive buffer before chat starts to send the response. Chat supports this with the parameter. Change the response strings similar to the following: ogin:--ogin: \d\daccount assword: \d\dhello2u2