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TESTED ON COL2.2
Author: mikea@norfolk.nf This write-up uses no fancy icon or gui. Just a simple enough shell script of a dozen lines or so, to get you connected. It works inside or outside the gui just as well. More importantly, it gets over the dreaded 'user /root' conflict of attempting such a simple thing as dialling your ISP.. BUT..... Your mileage will
vary using this StepByStep. It works for me, and most
standard ISP implementations. It is Some background (sadly) before you go Stepping. You can safely skip this waffle if you're impatient. PPP, Point to Point Protocol is, additionally, a peer to peer connection. It is a nightmare to setup because of these two reasons. Most documentation confuses you between being a client, and a server. You, my child are a client. Perversely, ppp doesn't care which you are. You can't go over it, can't go past it, can't go under it. PPP is *the* IP component of TCP / IP and is your connection to the outside world. Don't bother looking for 'easier' software to install, ppp is inside your kernel! pppd is the dIALLER / dAEMON portion of ppp. It assumes a serial connection, using modems. (this is a white lie, but let's move on). pppd proper very simply connects ppp in the kernel to your machine's existing environment. As in, your hostname and your current ip address(es), then establishes routing, changes permissions on serial lines, etc. It has sufficient additional smarts to look for scripts for pre and post processing. It's this, that makes it complex. pppd becomes complicated because 1) it is part of the kernel,
runs as root, and you as a user, not root, have to jump
through hoops to get 'at it'. The files you are most interested in are the shell scripts. These scripts can be located anywhere and called anything, but, the accepted location is /etc/ppp/ppp-on additional files called /etc/ppp/options can be useful to you, should you choose to use them. Finally, a third set of files /etc/ppp/ip-up are used to do post processing after a connection has been made. Entries like "sendmail now" could be placed in there. and lastly /etc/ppp/ppp-errors provides diagnostics fail messages. If you concentrate on the files ppp-on/off and ignore the rest, things will become clear as they aren't required. STEP ONE: Get your facts right. You need 1) your login name to your ISP.
Do not confuse this with your username(s) on your
computer. ttyS0= (com1) and that's IT. STEP TWO: Tidy up. This step is not necessary, but..... /var/log/messages is the hidey hole for kernal messages. It's big. Filter out the stuff you want to see as follows Edit /etc/syslog.conf and place somewhere near the top daemon.*/var/log/ppp # use TAB *not* spaces /etc/rc.d/init.d/syslog reload However, having done this, the remaining Steps are going to avoid every attempt at diagnostic messages to keep the noise levels down. Where appropriate, a footnote is added to show you how to turn on warnings. STEP 3: fix resolv.conf cat /etc/HOSTNAME or simply type hostname In my example it comes back to me saying "mikea.home" edit /etc/resolv.conf add alter or change the following entry domain home (there is an additional requirement here to have your DNS server's entry, it is outside the scope of this SxS). For now it's not going to assist you one jot in getting connected, and that's what's bothering you right?) STEP 4: fix security enter the following into /etc/host.conf don't be surprised if the above two steps are already 'ok' STEP 5: As Monty Python have said, there is no rule #5 so let's move on to rule #6. STEP 6: Change Permissions and chowns This is quite a large step because it does need some explanation. ppp(d) is a kernel process. It runs as root. You, as a user, not root, would like to dial an ISP. To do so you have to massage some permissions and chowns to get that to happen. You can ignore this step if you always dial in as root. People who do also like Russian Roulette as a pastime. There are two 'methods' 1) Set SUID or 2) chown 'user' groups so that (nearly) all processes belong to a 'group' that the user can belong to as well. This Step basically follows the SUID approach, (the other will be detailed in a later edition of this SxS) chmod 666
/dev/ttyS* (initially
set to 660 on install) Regardless of specific modem port, do the lot. (Later on, unknown to you, ppp alters the specific serial port to 644) do NOT use the /dev/modem link even if you have one. chmod 755
/usr/sbin/pppd What you are doing here is, regardless of your user name, you are temporarily becoming root user to bring the line up. STEP 7: running script Scripts which come with the ppp package do *not* work. The major reason is they assume you have path to /usr/sbin. Use this one. The file we are interested in is /etc/ppp/ppp-on You can place this script-file
anywhere you like and call it anything you like 'my-isp'
might suffice, but this SxS scrap what's there and enter the following: For Script Based ISP's #!/bin/sh TELEPHONE=12345 exec /usr/sbin/pppd $MODEM
$SPEED lock crtscts modem defaultroute
\ MAKE CERTAIN 'connect' IS ONE CONTINUOUS LINE, OR CHAT WILL FAIL. There are methods to avoid this, but this StepByStep is big enough as it is. X == 0,1,2 or 3 defined in Step One No further comment should be necessary about the phone, account, and password entries. For PAP Based ISP's #!/bin/sh TELEPHONE=12345 exec /usr/sbin/pppd $MODEM
$SPEED lock crtscts modem defaultroute
\ On Sprint based ISP's The ONLY tricky thing here is you need one more Step for PAP STEP 8: PAP ONLY edit /etc/ppp/pap-secrets insert the line fred * nirks STEP 9: Permissions cleanup chmod 600
/etc/ppp/pap-secrets Here is the output of my
/etc/ppp STEP 10: Become a Groupie edit /etc/group find the entry 'users' add your username (not your ISP
login, your USER name[s] to this group. Ie the names you
use on YOUR computer). users::100:ted,pete,mary,joe If you have trouble here understanding the syntax type man group STEP 11: Ready Set GO. from a console login type /etc/ppp/ppp-on The modem should start chattering, and should connect. To test it try a ping to a known ip number such as the one for yahoo.com STEP 12: Ready Set STOP. /etc/ppp/ppp-off I am not mentioning anything further about this script file, it should already be in /etc/ppp, otherwise do a locate ppp-off STEP 13: (Lucky last). Adding desktop icons From your home page kde browser button hunt down /etc/ppp Simply drag and drop shorcuts
(links) from ppp-on ppp-off to the desktop. It's that
simple. ADDENDA #1: When things go bang. The above scripts are written to create minimal blurb. If you need to look at /var/log/ppp (mentioned right at the beginning of this SxS) you can enhance the messages adding options to the scripts as follows chat add the option
-v (or -s) Additional error info is stored in /etc/ppp/ppp-errors ADDENDA #2: /etc/ppp/options. /etc/ppp/options is a useful file for you to go further The options mentioned in step 7 can be placed here instead. Items like lock This 'feature' can be useful when you have multiple isp accounts. |