Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 18042
PPP and kernel 2.4.x readiness
Last modified: 2008-05-01 11:37:59 EDT
Browsing through the RPMs for RH7.0, I noticed that ppp-2.3.11 (I believe it is) is included. However, kernel 2.4.x calls for ppp-2.4.0 since the new ppp package supports the new features from the ppp code out of kernel 2.4.x. ppp-2.4.0 works fine with the 2.2.x kernels. The 2.4.x kernels also require /dev/ppp, which is char-major-108, in order to work at all (I'm not sure if the new device is more a ppp or a kernel thing.. prolly more kernel-related but I thought I'd throw that in too) :)
The pppd distribution hadn't been officially been marked "finished" for 2.4 last time I checked, but it appears that that's changed. We'll add pppd 2.4.0 to the Raw Hide tree and release it when a 2.4.0 kernel is released.
I still cant find the new PPP in Raw Hide (maybe the mirrors do not update, the main site is always too busy). Can someone tell me how to get PPP working with a 2.4 kernel?
You should get ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz from someplace. Goto www.freshmeat.net and look up ppp. "rpm -e ppp" and then compile and install from the new tarball. The kernel help through menuconfig, etc, tells you that if you want to compile ppp support into the kernel, you'll have to make sure that the "set version info on all modules..." option is NOT selected (near the beginning of the config). If you want it as a module, then it should be ok (if you have the set version info option selected, then ppp is forced to build as a module). You'll have to create a new device using mknod... something like "mknod -m 644 c 108 0" (note that this device will be called char-major-108 when referenced in log files like /var/log/messages). You should also select the modules you want with ppp (the async module if you're using a modem, etc.. it explains it in the help) along with any of the compression modules it offers. Just compile the kernel, etc.. you may need to add a couple things to /etc/conf.modules.. this is what I added just to cover everything: alias char-major-108 ppp_generic alias /dev/ppp ppp_generic alias tty-ldisc-3 ppp_async alias tty-ldisc-14 ppp_synctty alias ppp-compress-21 off alias ppp-compress-24 off alias ppp-compress-26 off the last three lines other people often set to the different compression modules (I forget which goes with which since I don't use the compression modules). Reboot, etc.. I'm currently using 2.2.17 since 2.4.0-test8 which I last used had a terrible deadlock problem (processes going into D state one after another and never coming out)... I haven't tried out test9 or test10 yet. ppp on my end with 2.4.0-test has been good in some areas.. but crap in others. Reliable sources (he knows who he is) have informed me of what the problem might be. I just hope it gets cleared up or else linux-2.4.x isn't going to be nice. I hope some of what I've said has been helpful :)