Linux on PowerPC FAQ-O-Matic : System Configuration : PPP :
ADSL PPP access using an Alcatel SpeedTouch USB modem
An "official" management program for Linux is provided by Alcatel (see http://www.alcatel.com/consumer/dsl/produsb.htm). Alas, this driver is only provided in binary form for Intel Linux, and it also requires a specific patch which is only available for the 2.4.2 generic kernel (which does not compile under mac ppc platforms...).
Fortunately Benoit Papillault has developed a "user-space" driver which includes some clever reverse engineering and which does not require any specific kernel patch. His driver extracts the modem initialization data from the binary driver distributed by Alcatel, and thus can be compiled and used in principle on any Linux platform. All details and sources are available on http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/speedtouch/index.en.html (in english) and http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/speedtouch/index.html (in french).
I have successfully installed this driver on my old PowerMac 4400 (a PCI machine with a Tanzania motherboard, see http://linuxppc.org/hardware/tanzania/index.php3?css_ok=1) after adding a USB PCI card bought from http://www.macway.fr/. Under MacOS you need to upgrade to MacOS 8.6 and to download the additional USB support software from www.apple.com. Under Linux you need a 2.4.x kernel and a recent ppp version, because the "user-space" driver needs advanced kernel functionalities which are not available under the 2.2.x stock linuxppc kernel, and because the sync mode is not properly supported in old ppp distributions.
Here is my recipee:
- upgrade to LinuxPPC2000 Q4 (from http://linuxppc.com/ and http://linuxppc.org/). On my old slow 4400 box with 48 Mb of memory, KDE or Gnome are too sluggish to be usable. But I am quite happy with fvwm2.
- download the Paulus development 2.4.4 kernel from http://kernel.xorsis.com/source.php
- download the adsl driver from Benoit Papillault (I got speedtouch-09052001) and the management driver from Alcatel (I experimented version 1.3.3, they have just released the 1.3.4 in the meanwhile)
- compile a new kernel, unselecting the "experimental" features and trying to figure out the minimal set of features you need. Precompiled development kernels were not bootable on my 4400 or were incompatible with LinuxPPC2000.
- experiment the new kernel (you may need to adjust the graphic modes).
- then recompile again the kernel adding the functionalitied required by the adsl driver, and compile the corresponding adsl driver. Just follow the HOWTO from Benoit Papillault (see http link above).
- install a recent 2.4.0 ppp version. I grabbed the ppp-2.4.0-4mdk.ppc.rpm from the "RPM find" on http://linuxppc.org/. Apparently the Mandrake is preparing distributions for non-intel platforms including the ppc.
Performances are excellent and far ahead MacOS 8.6 with my slow mac. PPP and ADSL use little processor overhead, and allow advanced networking. Ssh tunelling works nicely, and VNC via the ssh tunnel is very responsive. Netscape is also *very* responsive.
Enjoy !
Pierre VALIRON, 29 june 2001.
X Can't Start any apps after Kppp Connects