Datasheet

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Chapter 1 ✦ Installing SUSE 10
Figure 1-26: Online update
Configuring Your Modem
Modems are notorious for being something of a problem area for Linux because many
of the internal PCI modems that are on sale are not true modems, but are what is
known as winmodems or soft modems. The idea behind winmodems is that some of
the functionality of the modem can be offloaded from hardware into software —
the software in question being the Windows operating system. As these devices are
designed to work only with Windows and in theory require a Microsoft operating sys-
tem to work, it is not surprising that there are difficulties getting them to work on
Linux. So there are three possibilities:
✦ You have an old-fashioned external serial modem. These will always work
under Linux.
✦ You have a winmodem. This may or may not work with Linux.
✦ You have an internal true hardware modem. In almost all cases this will
work with Linux.
Winmodem support has improved considerably, and some previously unsupported
modems now work with Linux. SUSE supports at least the SmartLink and Lucent
ltmodem types. During the installation, if YaST detects that you have a supported
winmodem, it will install the necessary package to provide driver support.
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