ISDN with Linux
Last Modified: Monday, 18-Apr-2011 18:21:38 BST

GOAL:

To integrate auto dialing up with ippp into an exisitng dialup environment.

So I took the exisitng pppd setups and hacked around until I got it working.


EQUIPMENT I USED:

• Linux RH5.1 upgraded to RH5.2
• Demon Internet £10 a month dial-up-account (an ISP)
• BT Home Highway connection
• BT Speedway card AKA:- AVM A1 (Fritz) (rev 2)
• isdn4kutils (isdn4k-utils.v3.1beta7.tar.gz)
• patch.2.2.12.isdn.bz2 or from my site
• kernel 2.2.12 (compiled to include ISDN subsystem after patch)

TIPS:

• When configuring the ISDN subsystem and you have selected the HiSax hardware, select both:-
  • ISA drivers for the AVM A1 Fritz card
  • PCI drivers for the AVM A1 Fritz card.
• To see if your card is present after fitting it do a cat /proc/pci
• Make sure you apply the patch before doing a make menuconfig (or whatever you use)
• After fitting the card and compiling your kernel reboot and check /var/log/dmesg & /var/log/messages
• Don't expect the HiSax module to be loaded with the other modules
• after rebooting try doing to see of the module is loaded:-
  /sbin/depmod -a
  if it has not loaded then do:-
  /sbin/modprobe hisax
  then see what modules aree loaded by doing a:-
  lsmod
  
• Now you can manually run my ISDN script after you have edited it by doing a:-
  /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn start
• Then dial up by doing this:-
  isdnctrl dial ippp0

PROBLEMS:

• Traceroute is unhappy with multiple interfaces, which indicates maybe that ipppd is not doing it's job!!
• tcpdump -i ippp0 is reporting incomplete packets!! Rather alarming!! But data gets through fine and is not corrupt. This turns out to be a bug in tcpdump, even upgrading to V3.5 doesn't solve the problem. So do not use this version or lower in ippp0.

Maybe the GURU's could refine/redo my scripts!!!!

We assume your ISDN card is installed correctly and works.

1. have a file /etc/ppp/ioptions
   
   # /etc/ppp/ioptions
   /dev/ippp0
   debug
   ipcp-accept-local
   ipcp-accept-remote
   noipdefault
   defaultroute
   user auserid # put your userid here
   +pwlog
   nobsdcomp
   noipx
   vj-max-slots 16
   
   Edit to suit
   
   
2. have a file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ippp0
   
   DEVICE=ippp0
   USERCTL=yes
   ONBOOT=yes
   BOOTPROTO=none
   BROADCAST=
   NETWORK=
   REMIP=158.152.1.222 # Your ISP gateway
   NETMASK=255.255.0.0
   IPADDR=
   PPPOPTIONS=ioptions
   PAPNAME=pap-secrets
   DEFROUTE=yes
   
   Edit to suit
   
   
3. have a script /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ippp
   
   
4. have a script /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-ippp
   
   
5. have a script /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn
   In this script edit your own telephone numbers and other relevant details to your setup
   
   
6. Create a run level for this script I choose run level 5 and gave it the start number 05 so it starts right after kerneld but before network. You can do this using X's run level editor.
   
   
7. In /etc/rc.d/rc.local I have a dial command (after I run my firewall script, also from rc.local):-
   /sbin/isdnctrl dial ippp0
   
   
8. make sure you change the outgoing device in your firewall script from ppp0 to the new device ippp0
   
   
9. I assume the pap-secrets file exists and is correct.
   
   
10. REBOOT (gulp!!!)