Dial-in no longer works

[Maarten van Maanen]

Our K370 has the standard HP 14K4 modem with analog line. I used to call into the system no and then (weekends mostly) to do quick and easy checks. Always worked fine.
Recently, we had a power-failure in a weekend that laster for a couple of hours. The system rebooted automatically when power came back on and since then I have been unable to login anymore. The modem answers the line but the text I get is all garbled and unreadable. I've tried different dial-in settings (7N1, 8N1) but without succes.

Does someone have a clue on what is wrong here ?

[John Palmer · Accepted solution]

What is the format of the modem's entry in /etc/inittab? and what does the corresponding entry in /etc/gettydefs look like?

Have you tried sending a 'break' sequence from your remote terminal session? This tells getty that the speed it is running at is not suitable and to try the next one in the gettydefs sequence.

See man getty and man gettydefs for details.

Regards,
John

[James Odak]

can you connect to the modem from the system?
cu -l cul0px dir (or what ever your modem is adressed)
check the echo and quiet settings
or just reset them with the following string
atq1e0&w

if the modem is answering then auto answer must be on
also like the person above suggested check the the /etc/inittab for the baud rate (usualy set as a value defined in /etc/gettydefs)

Finally if the modem is connected though a sieral or digi board make sure the port is enabled


hope this helps

Jim

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

I've got a problem with the modem hanged. Recycle it, (power off, wait a couple of minutes and restart). I know, I had to halt the box but... at that time solve the problem.

[James R. Ferguson]

Maarten:

My experience is never to use the internal modem for dialing-in. It is realtively easy to have it get hung, and the only recourse for restarting it is to cycle power on the server. I configure/use the internal modem for dial-out only --- for things like Predictive Support calls. I use an external modem for dial-in access as/if needed. If you have serveral servers, you can always dialin to one modem and telnet to the server to which you need.

...JRF...

[Patrick Wessel]

Maarten,

How does that garbage on your screen look like? Is it almost readable (if you use all of your imagination) or is it just a bunch of funny character? (is it possible to post a screen shot of it?)
Are you able to dial in using the accessport?
Maybe we are able to get closer to the root cause of the problem with this information.

[Jamie Rancourt]

Hi, you should also verify that there are no locks on the modem. Look in /var/spool/locks, if there is a file with the modem's tty number, remove it.

[Patrick Wessel]

Jamie,
A lock file in /var/spool/locks does not effect the dial-in. And before you remove it you want to check if the process is still running which caused that file. You can find the PID with: od -td

[Maarten van Maanen]

Gentleman,

Problem is solved by now.
I disconneted the line-converter from the internal modem, waited a couple of minutes, teh reconnected it.
Checked the /etc/inittab file (should have known that) en checked the /etc/gettydefs file also.
Also checked and tried the cu command but could not get any response.
Lastly I got into SAM (don't like that but don't know how to do this from the prompt) and reset the modem settings.
After this, the connection gave no more problems.
BTW, Patrick, the garbled texted was really garbled, nothing readable there.

Thanks

Maarten van Maanen
Netherlands

[daniel m_1]

I followed the advice to delete the LCK files in /var/spool/locks , this corrected the dial in problem I was having with a remote modem.