Bug 3121

Summary:	chat-to-dip is a mess
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	rri0189
Component:	netcfg	Assignee:	David Lawrence <dkl>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	6.0
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	1999-07-13 16:03:59 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description rri0189 1999-05-28 14:30:45 UTC

When working with slip, netcfg creates a chat script, but
then translates it into a dip script.  But the translation
is trivial, and completely unusable for non-trivial
applications.  For example, what I _need_ is a dip sequence:

sleep 2
send &
sleep 1
send &
sleep 1
send &

I could, in theory, create this effect in chat with
"\d\d&\d&\d&", but netcfg translates that to

send \d\d&\d&\d&

which is of no use at all.

Between this, and the fact that linuxconf doesn't do the
chat-to-dip translation in the first place, it took me days
to get a connection to my IPS (IBM Global Network), and I
had to do it by a completely bass-ackwards
reverse-engineering attempt.  linuxconf, netcfg and usernet
should all work together, and either usernet should do slip
 with chat or linuxconf and netcfg should allow the user to
create a dip script in the first place.  Or just replace all
this hoo-hah with instructions in the install manual on how
to use chat or dip directly.  Right now, I feel like the kid
in the poster with spaghetti dumped all over him.

(For what it's worth, I'm a professional programmer with 34
years of experience, including about 2 years on IRIX.  But
I'm new to Linux, and I've never done slip or ppp before
without ISP-provided dialer software.)

Comment 1 Jay Turner 1999-06-28 16:16:59 UTC

This issue has been assigned to a developer for further action.

Comment 2 Michael K. Johnson 1999-07-13 16:03:59 UTC

The translation works for most folks, and so the answer is
to modify the dip script by hand if the generated script
does not work.  We'll never make a graphical interface that
maps the full power of dip's scripting language into a
graphical format, so no matter what small improvements we
make, each improvement will only help a few users and leave
us with a still-imperfect solution for a technology that is
now almost unused, in comparison with PPP.

The other possibility is to try to hook up chat and slattach,
but at least the last time I looked, one or the other or both
would require changes to do that, and probably even more
people would complain if we did that...