I have a thinkpad x21 with a docking station. I have connected an external modem to the docking statiop and then tried to configure a modem network device to use with fedora core 2. Fedora core 2 does recognize devices on the docking station, such at the mouse port, diskette drive and CDrom drive. However, no matter which serial device address I select to activate for the modem, I get a hang, then an error, like error 6 or error 7. I have no idea what the error means and the system cannot activate the modem device on the selected serial device. I know that once activated, I can use "modem lights" to dial up to my ISP. And yes, the modem is on. Help! Please

Are you able to use a terminal program like minicom to connect directly to the com port? You should be able to pass the command ATZ to the serial port (eg /dev/ttyS0 for com1) and get an OK response.

I have not tried any command line instructions, hoping to do everything through Gnome. Any ideas?

If it is a true hardware modem, you should be able to control it by echoing hayes commands directly to the serial port. Which one is it plugged into? com1 = /dev/ttyS0 com2 = /dev/ttyS1 com3 = /dev/ttyS2 com4 = /dev/ttyS3 If it is plugged into com1, try the following from a command prompt: $ echo atz > /dev/ttyS0 to reset it, then try dialing a number: $ echo atdt 1234567890 > /dev/ttyS0 and you should hear it trying to dial. You may also want to check that /dev/modem is pointing to the correct device and a lot of programs will use that device by default. Have you tried with another dialler program like wvdial or kppp?

I tried the following commands at the command prompt: # echo atz > /dev/ttyS0 # echo atdt 6175551212 > /dev/ttyS I got NO response at all. I also tried ttyS1, S@ and S3. Still no response. Modem works fine using a Sun Workstation running Aurora Linux (a RedHat 7.3 version) at device ttyS0. Any other suggestions for activating the modem on the COM1 (ttyS0) port of the docking station for the ThinkPad X21? Every other device in the docking station (RW-CD, diskette) works fine. In fact, even the USB ports work fine. Thanks!

Do you have minicom installed? First as root run "minicom -s" to configure it and to point to the correct serial port and then run "minicom" and try the atz and atdt commands again.