HowTo: isdn4es

How can I make e-smith accept a passive ISDN-Card as DialOut-Device?

Klaus J. Mueller (kjm (at) internet-sicherheit.net)

v0.5b, 2001-04-25

Disclaimer

Use this documentation at your own risk. I will not accept any responsibility for any incorrect information within this document, nor for any damage it might cause when applied. It worked for me and it should work for you.

Current version

The most current version of this document can be obtained from http://internet-sicherheit.net/isdn4es-howto.html

Introduction

One of the few things I missed in e-smith was its non-present support for passive ISDN cards. Now, I've been told that in most parts of the world ISDN does not have such a wide spread as it does in Germany and that external ISDN-TA could be used instead of passive cards. Still I think there are many users who would like to use a passive ISDN card because of the simple fact that they are cheaper than the external ones (ISDN-TA: around 150 Euro, passive PCI-ISDN card: around 70 Euro).

So - here's how it works: I found that the easiest way for doing this would be to use all features that are implemented in e-smith already to support normal modems and to use the modem emulation feature of isdn4linux. This gives you all the comfort for modem operation (dialing policies etc.) without setting that all up by yourself.

All you need is:

a passive ISDN-card that is supported by isdn4linux
It worked for me with an AVM Fritz! PCI and a Teles.S0 PCI Rev. 1.2 (cheers to Michael G.); it also worked with a AVM A1 ISA (V 3.0) and a ITK ix1 Datafire Micro ISA (V2.1)

(Hint: If you're about to buy one: pick a PCI-card - saves you the hassle of juggling with interrupts and IO-adresses)
a running installation of e-smith 4.1.x

Remark: in case you are using an older version: go and get the latest version of e-smith! (or look up the old version of this howto: v0.4 suits e-smith v4.0)
and some information:
- what type of card do you use? You can look up the "type number" in this list. Search for "Card types".
  Hint: In case you still want to use an ISA-card (you've been warned!) you also need to look up the required parameters for that specific card: irq, io, mem...
- what is your own phone number (MSN) that you want to use for the dial-out?
some modifications to your system configuration:

(you didn't really hope to get by without, did ya? (-;)
- /etc/modules.conf
  Remark: before e-smith 4.1 / RedHat 7 this used to be conf.modules
  
  Remark: be careful when editing files, especially when not using a unix editor that might append some nice "^M"s to every line!
  
  This is where we put the card information. Create a new entry like this:
```
options hisax type=<type number> protocol=2
```
  Remark: "protocol=2" is for EURO-ISDN; if you don't have it: get it :-) or put a "1" there instead (is there anyone out there still using 1TR6?)
- set the MSN:
  Remark: this is one of your telephone numbers; the card is going to use this to dial out
  
  Issue this command:
```
/sbin/e-smith/config set ModemInit "&E123456S14=3"
```
  Remark: In some countries (UK) or if your card is connected to a PABX you might have to set a "0" (without the quotes, of course) here.
  
  Remark: The 1TR6-guys have to put the "EAZ" (single digit) here instead of the MSN
- tell e-smith to use the ISDN card for dialout:
```
/sbin/e-smith/config set DialupModemDevice /dev/ttyI0
```
  Remark: Charlie Brady of e-smith has helped to make this much less troublesome - thanx!
  
  Remark: It has actually become so easy, there are more remarks in this section then commands...
test your configuration at this point:
You might want to test your configuration (is my card there? did I select the right driver?...) using this command:
```
> modprobe hisax
```
If all is correct, you will just get back your prompt - otherwise you will get an error message. Verify the correct (or incorrect) loading of the module by looking at the kernel message buffer:
```
> dmesg | less
```
If you can see an error message here, well... you might want to check the faq of isdn4linux or Deja.com or send me a mail.

finally: make your changes permanent:

For that purpose we need a new init script to load the isdn driver at system startup:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es This is a new file that is basically stolen from the startup script for apache from RedHat and modified to suit our needs. It loads the ISDN driver during startup.

---------schnipp-----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
#
# Startup script for isdn4es
#
# description: isdn4es is needed to allow the usage of passive ISDN-cards \
#        with e-smith (http://www.e-smith.org/).
 
# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
 start)
  echo -n "Starting isdn4es: "
    modprobe hisax
    echo
    ;;
  stop)
    echo -n "Shutting down isdn4es: "
    modprobe -r hisax
    echo
    ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop
    $0 start
    ;;
  *)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
exit 1
esac
   
exit 0
---------schnapp-----------------------------------

download

> wget http://internet-sicherheit.net/isdn4es

> chmod u+rwx /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es

create links that point to the isdn4es script so the driver gets loaded every time e-smith is started:

> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K90isdn4es
> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K90isdn4es
> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S10isdn4es
> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S10isdn4es
> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K90isdn4es
> ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/isdn4es /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S10isdn4es

Restart the console and run the configuration wizard
To make sure the wizard script gets reloaded after our modification choose cancel when on the top level of the Control console and choose Configure this server and gateway then.

...and finally reboot!
Why leave all the fun to the w**-guys, hä?

NO CARRIER
Older verions of this document (<0.5b) were using the modem emulation with its default protocol: X.75. This is not supported by all ISPs. In case you have problems dialing in and you get the message "NO CARRIER" (can be found in /var/log/messages, right after the "ATDT<your-providers-number>^M^M" line), make sure you are using the new ModemInit string:
```
/sbin/e-smith/config set ModemInit "&E123456S14=3"
```
Remark: again, the 1TR6-guys have to put the "EAZ" (single digit) here instead of the MSN

Credits

Cheers to the folks at isdn4linux and also to the e-smith people!

Version history

v0.1 2000-07-06 initial release
v0.2 2000-07-20 modification to make isdn4es work with the final version of es4
v0.3 2000-08-30 some minor changes to clarify some misunderstandable passages
v0.4 2000-10-19 minor improvements based on user-feedback, added settings for AVM Fritz! PCI
v0.5 2001-04-21 minor changes (/etc/conf.modules -> /etc/modules.conf) to adapt to e-smith 4.1.x / RedHat 7.0 file naming, some simplifications (thanx to Charlie Brady from e-smith for the suggestions!)
v0.5a 2001-04-24 corrected and completed the hints around the modprobe command. Thanx to John van Veggel who suggested this!
v0.5b 2001-04-25 added the hint to solve the "NO CARRIER" problem

Here my settings for the cards that I tested:

AVM Fritz!PCI:
AVM A1 ISA (V 3.0):
Teles S0.PCI:
ITK ix1-micro ISA (V2.1)
Thanx to John van Veggel who has reported a success with this card and settings:
HFC-S (E-Tech PCTA128 Dolphin card, also sold as Billion, with the Cologne Chip Design HFC-S chip)

This version 0.5b has been working for me and for John van Veggel with e-smith 4.1.1. Please let me know, if you have tested this for 4.1.2 (or any later versions that have appeared without me noticing it :-) )