|  | simple isdn4linux PPP FAQ .. to be continued .. not 'debugged' | 
|  | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q01: what's pppd, ipppd, syncPPP, asyncPPP ?? | 
|  | Q02: error message "this system lacks PPP support" | 
|  | Q03: strange information using 'ifconfig' | 
|  | Q04: MPPP?? What's that and how can I use it ... | 
|  | Q05: I tried MPPP but it doesn't work | 
|  | Q06: can I use asynchronous PPP encapsulation with network devices | 
|  | Q07: A SunISDN machine can't connect to my i4l system | 
|  | Q08: I wanna talk to several machines, which need different configs | 
|  | Q09: Starting the ipppd, I get only error messages from i4l | 
|  | Q10: I wanna use dynamic IP address assignment | 
|  | Q11: I can't connect. How can I check where the problem is. | 
|  | Q12: How can I reduce login delay? | 
|  |  | 
|  | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q01: pppd, ipppd, syncPPP, asyncPPP .. what is that ? | 
|  | what should I use? | 
|  | A: The pppd is for asynchronous PPP .. asynchronous means | 
|  | here, the framing is character based. (e.g when | 
|  | using ttyI* or tty* devices) | 
|  |  | 
|  | The ipppd handles PPP packets coming in HDLC | 
|  | frames (bit based protocol) ... The PPP driver | 
|  | in isdn4linux pushes all IP packets direct | 
|  | to the network layer and all PPP protocol | 
|  | frames to the /dev/ippp* device. | 
|  | So, the ipppd is a simple external network | 
|  | protocol handler. | 
|  |  | 
|  | If you login into a remote machine using the | 
|  | /dev/ttyI* devices and then enable PPP on the | 
|  | remote terminal server -> use the 'old' pppd | 
|  |  | 
|  | If your remote side immediately starts to send | 
|  | frames ... you probably connect to a | 
|  | syncPPP machine .. use the network device part | 
|  | of isdn4linux with the 'syncppp' encapsulation | 
|  | and make sure, that the ipppd is running and | 
|  | connected to at least one /dev/ippp*. Check the | 
|  | isdn4linux manual on how to configure a network device. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q02: when I start the ipppd .. I only get the | 
|  | error message "this system lacks PPP support" | 
|  | A: check that at least the device 'ippp0' exists. | 
|  | (you can check this e.g with the program 'ifconfig') | 
|  | The ipppd NEEDS this device under THIS name .. | 
|  | If this device doesn't exists, use: | 
|  | isdnctrl addif ippp0 | 
|  | isdnctrl encap ippp0 syncppp | 
|  | ... (see isdn4linux doc for more) ... | 
|  | A: Maybe you have compiled the ipppd with another | 
|  | kernel source tree than the kernel you currently | 
|  | run ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q03: when I list the netdevices with ifconfig I see, that | 
|  | my ISDN interface has a HWaddr and IRQ=0 and Base | 
|  | address = 0 | 
|  | A: The device is a fake ethernet device .. ignore IRQ and baseaddr | 
|  | You need the HWaddr only for ethernet encapsulation. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q04: MPPP?? What's that and how can I use it ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: MPPP or MP or MPP (Warning: MP is also an | 
|  | acronym for 'Multi Processor') stands for | 
|  | Multi Point to Point and means bundling | 
|  | of several channels to one logical stream. | 
|  | To enable MPPP negotiation you must call the | 
|  | ipppd with the '+mp' option. | 
|  | You must also configure a slave device for | 
|  | every additional channel. (see the i4l manual | 
|  | for more) | 
|  | To use channel bundling you must first activate | 
|  | the 'master' or initial call. Now you can add | 
|  | the slave channels with the command: | 
|  | isdnctrl addlink <device> | 
|  | e.g: | 
|  | isdnctrl addlink ippp0 | 
|  | This is different from other encapsulations of | 
|  | isdn4linux! With syncPPP, there is no automatic | 
|  | activation of slave devices. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q05: I tried MPPP but it doesn't work .. the ipppd | 
|  | writes in the debug log something like: | 
|  | .. rcvd [0][proto=0x3d] c0 00 00 00 80 fd 01 01 00 0a ... | 
|  | .. sent [0][LCP ProtRej id=0x2 00 3d c0 00 00 00 80 fd 01 ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: you forgot to compile MPPP/RFC1717 support into the | 
|  | ISDN Subsystem. Recompile with this option enabled. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q06: can I use asynchronous PPP encapsulation | 
|  | over the network interface of isdn4linux .. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: No .. that's not possible .. Use the standard | 
|  | PPP package over the /dev/ttyI* devices. You | 
|  | must not use the ipppd for this. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q07: A SunISDN machine tries to connect my i4l system, | 
|  | which doesn't work. | 
|  | Checking the debug log I just saw garbage like: | 
|  | !![ ... fill in the line ... ]!! | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: The Sun tries to talk asynchronous PPP ... i4l | 
|  | can't understand this ... try to use the ttyI* | 
|  | devices with the standard PPP/pppd package | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: (from Alexanter Strauss: ) | 
|  | !![ ... fill in mail ]!! | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q08: I wanna talk to remote machines, which need | 
|  | a different configuration. The only way | 
|  | I found to do this is to kill the ipppd and | 
|  | start a new one with another config to connect | 
|  | to the second machine. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: you must bind a network interface explicitly to | 
|  | an ippp device, where you can connect a (for this | 
|  | interface) individually configured ipppd. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q09: When I start the ipppd I only get error messages | 
|  | from the i4l driver .. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: When starting, the ipppd calls functions which may | 
|  | trigger a network packet. (e.g gethostbyname()). | 
|  | Without the ipppd (at this moment, it is not | 
|  | fully started) we can't handle this network request. | 
|  | Try to configure hostnames necessary for the ipppd | 
|  | in your local /etc/hosts file or in a way, that | 
|  | your system can resolve it without using an | 
|  | isdn/ippp network-interface. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q10: I wanna use dynamic IP address assignment ... How | 
|  | must I configure the network device. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: At least you must have a route which forwards | 
|  | a packet to the ippp network-interface to trigger | 
|  | the dial-on-demand. | 
|  | A default route to the ippp-interface will work. | 
|  | Now you must choose a dummy IP address for your | 
|  | interface. | 
|  | If for some reason you can't set the default | 
|  | route to the ippp interface, you may take any | 
|  | address of the subnet from which you expect your | 
|  | dynamic IP number and set a 'network route' for | 
|  | this subnet to the ippp interface. | 
|  | To allow overriding of the dummy address you | 
|  | must call the ipppd with the 'ipcp-accept-local' option. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: You must know, how the ipppd gets the addresses it wanna | 
|  | configure. If you don't give any option, the ipppd | 
|  | tries to negotiate the local host address! | 
|  | With the option 'noipdefault' it requests an address | 
|  | from the remote machine. With 'useifip' it gets the | 
|  | addresses from the net interface. Or you set the address | 
|  | on the option line with the <a.b.c.d:e.f.g.h> option. | 
|  | Note: the IP address of the remote machine must be configured | 
|  | locally or the remote machine must send it in an IPCP request. | 
|  | If your side doesn't know the IP address after negotiation, it | 
|  | closes the connection! | 
|  | You must allow overriding of address with the 'ipcp-accept-*' | 
|  | options, if you have set your own or the remote address | 
|  | explicitly. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: Maybe you try these options .. e.g: | 
|  |  | 
|  | /sbin/ipppd :$REMOTE noipdefault /dev/ippp0 | 
|  |  | 
|  | where REMOTE must be the address of the remote machine (the | 
|  | machine, which gives you your address) | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q11: I can't connect. How can I check where the problem is. | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: A good help log is the debug output from the ipppd... | 
|  | Check whether you can find there: | 
|  | - only a few LCP-conf-req SENT messages (less then 10) | 
|  | and then a Term-REQ: | 
|  | -> check whether your ISDN card is well configured | 
|  | it seems, that your machine doesn't dial | 
|  | (IRQ,IO,Proto, etc problems) | 
|  | Configure your ISDN card to print debug messages and | 
|  | check the /dev/isdnctrl output next time. There | 
|  | you can see, whether there is activity on the card/line. | 
|  | - there are at least a few RECV messages in the log: | 
|  | -> fine: your card is dialing and your remote machine | 
|  | tries to talk with you. Maybe only a missing | 
|  | authentication. Check your ipppd configuration again. | 
|  | - the ipppd exits for some reason: | 
|  | -> not good ... check /var/adm/syslog and /var/adm/daemon. | 
|  | Could be a bug in the ipppd. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Q12: How can I reduce login delay? | 
|  |  | 
|  | A: Log a login session ('debug' log) and check which options | 
|  | your remote side rejects. Next time configure your ipppd | 
|  | to not negotiate these options. Another 'side effect' is, that | 
|  | this increases redundancy. (e.g your remote side is buggy and | 
|  | rejects options in a wrong way). | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  |  |