PCMCIA trouble with Dapper

[Maynard Wright]

I'm using a PCMCIA modem for dialup access from Dapper (6.06 LTS) on a Toshiba 
Satellite L25-S19 laptop.  I use KPPP to access the modem.  About half the 
time, access works properly, with KPPP initially displaying "modem ready" and 
then properly dialing and connecting.

On other occasions, attempting to dial from KPPP brings up "looking for modem" 
followed by "modem busy."  The telephone line is known to be idle at this 
time.  The only recourse is to reboot.  Sometimes more than one reboot is 
required and, on occasion, I've had to shut down and boot from a cold start.  
Sometimes, several boots in a row are successful with no trouble noted.

Examining pcmcia utils from the system services window in adminstrator mode 
doesn't yield much because it always shows pcmciautils "not running" even 
when the modem is in service and working fine.  All the various modes are set 
to "start on boot."  When I press the start button, an indication that 
pcmciautils has started is displayed, but the indication in the main system 
services window still says "not running."

I've wondered whether it might be an intermittent hardware problem with the 
modem, but I'm not convinced that a reboot, without cycling the power to the 
card, would fix that.

I can always get the modem up and running with one or more reboots, so I'm 
transitioning from RedHat 8 to Kubuntu as my primary operating system 
(Kubuntu is the only OS on this particular laptop), but I'd like to fix this 
minor irritant.




Thanks,

Maynard