Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: eel on June 12, 2011, 07:40:36 PM

Title: Internet Connection Problem
Post by: eel on June 12, 2011, 07:40:36 PM

I have TCL 3.6 installed and running OK (USB installation).
Computer is a Toshiba Laptop A136, with a Toshiba Software Modem (mfgr Agere).
I am connected via telephone land line to ISP TOAST.NET (works fine with Win XP).

Clicked AppBrowser, then Connect, hoping to get an internet connecton.  Booted with
"waitusb=10", because of USB booting.
At bottom of AppBrowser window, TCE shows /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional.

I got message:  "Connection error, check network or mirror".

I did several commands in the terminal:
   ifconfig -a | grep Ethernet | grep -v dummy   
   RESULT:  etho Link encap: Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1B:38:14:37:44

   ifconfig eth0 | grep UP
   RESULT:  UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU: 1500

   ifconfig eth0 | grep inet
   RESULT:  no response given

   route | grep | '^default.*eth0$'
   RESULT:  no response given

   ping 8.8.8.8
   RESULT:  ping 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
                  ping:  send to:  network is unreachable

   grep nameservedr /etc/resolv.conf
   RESULT:  nameserver

   nslookup google.com
   RESULT:  Server: 0.0.0.0  Address1: 0.0.0.0  nslookup:  can't resolve 'google.com'

   wget -O - http://example.com
    RESULT:  bad address 'example.com'

   tce-fetch.sh info.lst
   RESULT:  bad address 'ibiblio.org'

These tests were done based on a recommendation by MARO in a post to another user
 some time ago.

I hope these tests are meaningful to someone, and that they will help someone to
determine what I need to do next to obtain an internet connection.

Thanks for your help.

Title: Re: Internet Connection Problem
Post by: maro on June 13, 2011, 12:40:14 AM

@eel: Obviously if you want to use an ethernet connection (as indicated by 'eth0') you'll require to have one (e.g. via a DSL router) as a precondition. The lack of one explains all the failures to the tests reported in the OP. Since you stated that you are planning to use the soft-modem you'll probably want to set up a PPP connection instead.

AFAIK the 'pppd.tcz' extension is the one you'll definitely need for this purpose. IIRC you then have a choice of at least the 'ppsetup.tcz' and the 'wvdial.tcz' extensions to help with the setup of such a connection. Those should only be needed once or until your setup is working.

I don't know (due to my current lack of my own first-hand experience) what you'll require to get this soft-modem to work. First off I'm not sure that a Toshiba Satellite A136 really exists. I now tend to think it's rather a A135-Xnnnn (with X={A-Z}, and n={0000-9999}). It therefore might help to clarify this detail.

Furthermore it would help to know how you managed to set up your USB device on which you've installed TC (e.g. via another Linux system or via a Windows one). This information could help to be more specific in the further steps.

As a start I'd like to suggest that you add the 'pci-utils.tcz' extension (and it's dependency 'libpci.tcz') to your USB stick. After installation of said extension you could then run lspci (and report the result back here).

Having read up on this subject only a little bit so far I get the impression that this Linmodems support page (http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/) is central to any further effort. That page seems to maintain a script (http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/scanModem.gz) that could be run and which might provide a clue whether your soft-modem can be supported or not.

To run the 'scanModem' script one needs to uncompress it first (e.g. via gzip -d scanModem.gz). Furthermore due to a small glitch in the script one better puts a copy of 'lspci' somewhere else in the $PATH (e.g. via sudo cp -p $(which lscpi) /usr/bin). The "shebang" line of the script indicates the need to use 'bash', but in my (limited) testing so far the default shell of TC works just fine when calling the script directly (e.g. via sh scanModem). The script execution produces a whole range of files (under 'Modem') and it would probably be best to gather the whole lot (e.g. via tar czf scanModem_result.tgz Modem) and attach this archive here.