Dial out...

I am trying to get a RH9 mail server to dial an ISP and I am having 
considerable difficulty.

Note: I have removed all sensitive information and have used 
<description> instead.

I have a Zoom V.34 modem which is correctly detected by RH9 on the first 
serial port. Then, I have created an 
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp0:

4 -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          126 Dec 29 10:56 ifcfg-eth0

PERSIST=yes
DEFROUTE=yes
ONBOOT=yes
INITSTRING='AT&FW2M0&C1&D3&K3%C3\N3S7=60S95=1'
MODEMPORT=/dev/modem
# MODEMPORT=/dev/ttyS0
LINESPEED=115200
ESCAPECHARS=no
DEFABORT=yes
HARDFLOWCTL=yes
DEVICE=ppp0
PPPOPTIONS=
DEBUG=no
PAPNAME= <papname>
REMIP= <address>
IPADDR= <address>
BOOTPROTO=none
MTU=
MRU=
DISCONNECTTIMEOUT=
RETRYTIMEOUT=
USERCTL=no
NETMASK=255.255.255.0


I have a link in /dev :

0 lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root   5 Dec 30 05:26 modem -> ttyS0

And I have a /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-ppp0:

4 -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          126 Dec 29 10:56 ifcfg-eth0

'ABORT' 'BUSY'
'ABORT' 'ERROR'
'ABORT' 'NO CARRIER'
'ABORT' 'NO DIALTONE'
'ABORT' 'Invalid Login'
'ABORT' 'Login incorrect'
'' 'AT&FW2M0&C1&D3&K3%C3\N3S7=60S95=1'
'OK' 'ATDT<dialupnumber>'
'CONNECT' ''

I also have the following in /etc/inittab:

# Modem line
m1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mgetty ttyS0


When I manually try to "ifup ppp0" it doesn't dial, no modem lights 
flicker (that I can see) and in /var/log/messages I have:

Dec 30 05:43:10 proxy pppd[2817]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Dec 30 05:43:10 proxy ifup-ppp: pppd started for ppp0 on /dev/modem at 
115200
Dec 30 05:44:08 proxy pppd[2817]: Connect script failed


Also, in /var/log/messages I have:

Dec 30 05:35:43 proxy mgetty[2643]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:35:43 proxy mgetty[2643]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2643
Dec 30 05:36:29 proxy mgetty[2687]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:36:29 proxy mgetty[2687]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2687
Dec 30 05:37:14 proxy mgetty[2697]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:37:14 proxy mgetty[2697]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2697
Dec 30 05:38:00 proxy mgetty[2700]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:38:00 proxy mgetty[2700]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2700
Dec 30 05:38:46 proxy mgetty[2701]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:38:46 proxy mgetty[2701]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2701
Dec 30 05:39:32 proxy mgetty[2712]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:39:32 proxy mgetty[2712]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2712
Dec 30 05:40:18 proxy mgetty[2713]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
Interrupted system call
Dec 30 05:40:18 proxy mgetty[2713]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
pid=2713

etc etc.

This appears to be a log entry coming from the inittab mgetty entry, and 
it is having trouble talking to the modem.

In /var/lock/ I have two files that get created and removed every minute 
or so:

4 -rw-r--r--    1 root     root           11 Dec 30 05:53 LCK..modem
4 -rw-r--r--    1 root     root           11 Dec 30 05:54 LCK..ttyS0

The modem and port work fine, so I don't believe that it is a hardware 
issue.

I am rapidly going bald as I tear my hair out trying to work out why 
this is happening. :-)

Can any PPP gurus shed any light on this?  :-)

Regards,
Brad