Feels like..
Pitchforks and Nitrogen tri-Iodide time (on some keyboards.. or chair wheels.)

*nix is so Bitchin, in so many ways, yet -- in This Milieu == as it IS, and after X years of the Doze Death march, rotting brains all over the planet, just -
Maybe.. Linux Inc. needs to get a billionaire to Pay a few evangelists to do some ameliorating of -
Gee.. this project ain't very interestin - why, it's just collectin a whole bunch o'data and makin it AVAILABLE to the unwashed, in useable form . . . Sheesh! B o r i n g

For those millions of grammas/pops who could really benefit from Beast-free crashless simple e-mail, modest surfing and who, for reasons of cost or local availablity -- stay on dial-up -- doing your average apt-get is perzackly as Impossible-via-modem:
-- as would be other foolish imaginings, like: to keep up with the daily bug-fixes of Beastware, sans hi-speed access?

Yes, the installs have all become much saner; in a few happy combos of Box guts - they can work 100% with maybe a not-optimal video card driver; then
-- there are Notebooks.. whose Crap-modem must work or, for the unwashed, Forget It and Eat Doze.
[Like my HP zt-1145. Carry the Hayes + 9V batt.?]


EXAMPLES

Even for the World-Standard Hayes Optima, *ONLY* Puppy Linux demo could, to date:

1) Find the sucker on a serial port
2) Config
3) RUN! it via the simple GUI modem dialup ap.
4) Seamlessly

So >it's Out There< - how's come Puppy folk found it? - and None of the others did? could? bothered..?

(Thanks to neighbor's obsession with sending away for demos, by the boxful):

I can testify that NONE of the following 'Live CD's COULD DETECT A HAYES Optima modem, via either a Compaq 7000US or a Dell Dimension 8100 == pretty Vanilla guts - certainly as serial ports go, over the last 15 years:

(i386 stated, where there might have been other Live? cpu demo options)

Knoppix 4.0.2
Mepis 3.4
Ubuntu 5.10
Ubuntu 6.06
Suse 10.1
Kubuntu 6.06 beta2
Kubuntu 5.10
Linux XP 2006
Eagle Linux 2.2
Icepack 2.75
Gnoppix 1.0
Santa Fe Linux 1.0 CTR3
Wolvix 1.04
..and a few more that had other problems, or which I've forgotten.


Some months back, I asked the IGM about Detection Databases, hoping for a hint of how each casual-distro snoops around, throws a few mobos in the mix and .. apparently, says - OKthatsgoodenough for Government work. Like:
W.T.F. do *they* collect the detect- data FROM?

I hinted about the obvious:
-- WHERE is the DBase-of-dbases repository for all the F&^$#@^ HARDWARE ever detected via 'OPEN' source folks, collectively?

WHY can I not find a DETECTION-only bootable-CD! (or set..) (or boot via Knopp, etc.)
-- which queries the DB-of-Dbs, returns a report
-- with either the config files associated, or at least:
-- WHERE the drivers and install specs can be found, for each item.

YET.. IF
-- One had a detected hardware list ~like this, and
-- There were a way to submit that to any distro during Install boot-up (superseding its arbitrary/limited detection dbase)

OR:
-- submit same to a Demo, as via a switch on start command \ufffd l\ufffd Knoppix, presumably most others -

THEN..

*ALL* the distros would have the benefit of mostly uneventful loading, thus the chance to acquire *Gravitas* via allegiance of another happy Beast-freed user.

>> Isn't THAT Game #1 amongst ALL these distros? Get the Word out? <<
>> Game #2: get some attention for OUR distro. <<


Oh yeah: Puppy! - which alone, found the Hayes, No Sweat:
-- ALSO noted presence of the Winmodem in the Cpq!
-- had a few intelligible English words about why Puppy could not {yet..?} run the sucker
-- and included a couple notes on the state of *nix VS cheesy Winmodems: info which I may follow up, when I have a day or 2 to slog through various dimensions of..

HOW do I find out if Anyone has made *this* particular modem work, then where did they hide the drivers, enumerator and related simulators of what WIN- left out.
(And natch - can these be obtained in a file smaller than 20-50 Mbytes?)

Yeah.. modems aren't very interesting, but - I wonder what current estimates are, of the number still in use on the planet.


Thanks anyway,

Ashton
Whose game remains:
How far Can you get with *nix now, with minimal or no use of the CL ??
'Cause the GUI alone will determine the future (beyond hobbyists / enthusiasts) - that vast, impatient majority who are.. just too busy getting More --> Stuff.

I grok the reasons for a standard modem needing no sissy 'driver', and why the CPU has to do the tasks the missing 'engine' would do, transparently.

Thanks for wvdial tip and the rest. If puppy is indeed on wvdial (haven't looked yet) - then the .conf ought to translate to the other distros .. with some luck.
Still: Puppy found even the beastmodem - in the Cpq and the HP n/b; the others didn't notice/care to Say..

Were there an IRQ conflict that install logic couldn't rearrange: nevertheless, Puppy managed. So, I infer it's something else which the other .confs (of those using wvdial) - were just sloppy about..

I've mentioned before - the general tenor of error, other Messages in Puppy - All are in English, helpful sans verbosity. Beautifully absent: the smirking game of trying for cubic-closest-packing of terse logical unitary descriptions / with no examples volunteered. Another proof that: this Can be done. Seems to be ~about ego and D-grades in expository English, in computer 'science' classes. I have to find out more about the raison d'etre of Puppy: there's an English major in there, somewhere: More. POWER.

Ah well, probably good practice, here .. playing an Admin-on-Tee-Vee.
The other distros' inadequacy suggests too, that The Word doesn't necessarily get around, even in Open Source :-/

Thanks - you've given enough info that I should be able to solve this one; half-arsed will do for starters. (Clearly - Puppy proves that all the pieces are there.)