World-Net sell a cheap PCI ADSL Modem which is branded as an Access-Runner. This modem contains a Conexant Tigris chipset and is reasonably easy to get going it linux once you know what to do. The basic steps are below. This is probably going to be quite debian specific seeing as I only run debian.

1. Build & Configure Modem Driver
2. Build & Configure PPPoA (PPP over ATM)

Quirks

The only quirk I have found with the modem so far is that the lights on the back do not go. So if your modem looks dead don't be fooled!

Build & Configure Modem Driver

Obtain Modem Driver Source

The authoritative reference for the kernel module that you need seems to be http://patrick.spacesurfer.com/linux_conexant_pci_adsl.html the information below is a summary of this page and a refactoring of the previous information found on this wiki page.

Before compiling the driver you will need to make sure your kernel is compiled with the following options. | Kernel configuration section | Description | .config Define | Networking options | Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) | CONFIG_ATM | Network device support | PPP (point-to-point protocol) support | CONFIG_PPP | Network device support | PPP over ATM | CONFIG_PPPOATM

You will need to download a different source package depending on the version of your kernel, but after that the process is roughly the same. | Kernel 2.4 and earlier | http://patrick.spacesurfer.com/adsl/CnxADSL-6.1.2.007-PIM-2.tar.bz2 | Kernel 2.6 | http://patrick.spacesurfer.com/adsl/CnxADSL-6.1.2.007-PIM-2.6-1.1.tar.bz2

1. Extract the archive, change into the Directory
2. make
3. make install

NOTE: make install tries to install the init script into /etc/rc.d/init.d/ so you might need to edit the Makefile to point it to the correct location for your distribution (ie. for debian, etc.)

This will install some userspace tools for configuring the modem (we'll deal with these in a minute) and also the kernel module. At this point you probably want to run

depmod -ae

to update your module dependencies. Under 2.4.26 I get a few warnings about unresolved symbols which is slightly worrying, but everything seems to work ok.

NOTE: You can't just insmod / modprobe the driver, see the following section for how to get it to work.

Configure the Driver

Actually getting the driver to load successfully is another story altogether.

1. Edit /etc/Conexant/cnxadsl.conf

   • Change the VPI to 0
   • Change the VCI to 100
   • update-rc.d cnxadslctl start 42 S . stop 42 0 6 .

Configure PPPoA

The modem driver is now up and running. However before you can actually get on the internet you will need to configure PPPoA.

Setting up PPPoA in Linux is documented on the following page LinuxPPPoA.

CategoryHardware