From: Niall O Broin (niall at domain linux.ie)
Date: Wed 10 Oct 2001 - 12:52:58 IST
On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 11:20:41AM +0100, Tom Mackey wrote:
> I am thinking of installing Linux on an old P90, which currently has win95
> on it. It has PCI internal modem. Is there any simple way of checking if
> it is a proper modem or a win modem prior to the linux install?
I would guess it's a proper modem as a P90 isn't really ballsy enough to
drive a Winmodem. There are a number of ways of checking if it's a real
modem. If you have some DOS comms software, boot to DOS and fire up said
software and see if you you can talk to the modem i.e. will it respond to AT
commands. If you've no DOS comms software you could try doing
echo "ATE1V1DT123456" > COM1: (or COM2: etc. if appropriate). If you hear
some beeps out the modems speaker, it's a real modem (but if you don't hear
beeps, it's not necessarily not a real modem :-) - i.e. this test won't give
you false positives, but it might give you a false negative).
A Linux way of checking this, to drag this back on topic, is to get a copy
of the ILUG BBC (bootable business card - business card sized bootable CD)
which will have your box running Linux in minutes (if the box won't boot
from CD, quite possible with a P90, there are instructions on the CD as to
how to make a bootable floppy). It'll work fine on a P90 but you'll want at
least 16M of RAM, and 32M would be better. Once you've booted Linux from
that you can run minicom which is a comms package and then you can see if
you can talk to the modem.
Niall
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