Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Thursday 2 October 2008, 9:34 AM
A Minor Stumble with Ubuntu
I went to replace a PC for some friends (their old system was still running Win98 and took about 15 minutes to boot and be ready to use). They only use the PC for email with their children, and once in a great while to look at something on the web. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to set them up with Linux, Firefox and Thunderbird, and they would never know the difference. I loaded the system and went by to install it... and found that USB network connection. Sigh. I tried just connecting and booting (see, I really am learning to just stay out of the way and give Ubuntu a chance...), but no luck this time. Ubuntu could see the Netopia USB device, according to lsusb, but didn't know what to do with it, and the LEDs on the modem stayed dark.
I searched for some info on the web, and the Ubuntu and Mandriva Wikis, but I haven't found anything that is reasonably current, and does not require kernel modifications and special driver hacks, which I am not willing to risk on a machine that I am going to install for someone else. If anyone knows how to get such a USB network connection working, on Ubuntu or Mandriva, I would love to hear about it. Otherwise...
The obvious solution is to replace the ADSL modem with something a lot more rational, and most likely a lot better. I can pick up a Linksys ADSL modem/router/hub/wireless unit for a reasonable price, and just avoid the USB problem that way. Overall it's a better solution anyway.
jw 2/10/2008
PreviousComments on this post
Just dump the thing. It's almost certainly just a USB 1.1 device and will never support ADSLv2. USB also taxes the host CPU, which is probably unwise in an old machine anyway. (You'll want to use that CPU time for other purposes!) So yes, get an ADSL router and connect it to the PC via a cheap 100Mbps Ethernet card.
Hi, thanks for reading and commenting, and the advice. That is pretty much what I was thinking too. Although they will certainly never get any better ADSL than they have right now, which is the lowest speed (and lowest price) available from Swisscom, you're almost certainly right about it being a USB 1.1 device, and about the CPU load. I've always thought that USB networking was a rather silly approach. The good news is, the newer (but still rather old) computer that I am preparing for them has ethernet integrated on the motherboard, so we won't have to put any more money into that particular area.
I'll post here later about how the ADSL modem/router works out.
Thanks again.
jw 2/10/2008
Did you try it with Mandriva yet? Just out of curiosity. We do have support for quite a lot of these directly-connected-to-the-computer ADSL adapters. Run drakconnect and tell it you want to set up an ADSL connection, and see what happens. It might work.
Hi Adam, No, I haven't tried it yet, but that is next on the list. Thanks for the tip, and for reading. By the way, 2009 RC2 looks really good, congratulations!
jw 2/10/2008
The very best thing to do with a USB modem is to take it out shooting. I understand it makes an excellent target flung several tens of metres into the air.
I remember trying to network an Alcatel Frog modem (BT's favourite) with both Linux and FreeBSD. We eventually hooked it to a Windows 98 box and used that as the household router. Yes, really. To all our Unix machines.
