Arch Linux

Haakon

Member

From: Bergen, Norway

Registered: 2004-05-09

Posts: 109

Can't get PPP to work

I need PPP for PPTP VPN networking. I'm using the stock 2.6 IDE kernel.  After boot, the 'pppd' command says I have to create /dev/ppp with 'mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0'. After I do that, pppd gives me this:

pppd: This system lacks kernel support for PPP.  This could be because
the PPP kernel module could not be loaded, or because PPP was not
included in the kernel configuration.  If PPP was included as a
module, try `/sbin/modprobe -v ppp'.  If that fails, check that
ppp.o exists in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net.
See README.linux file in the ppp distribution for more details

Also, 'dmesg | grep -i ppp' gives me this:

PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
devfs_mk_dev: could not append to parent for ppp
failed to register PPP device (-17)

The dmesg command gives nothing before I create /dev/ppp.

My knowledge stops there Any ideas?

EDIT: I searched the forums a little, and found http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=3365. It seems the solution is to roll your own kernel. I've tried for the longest to avoid this, both because it's a PITA and because I want the new kernel versions from pacman painlessly, but if it must be done, it must be done.

mctavish

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2004-03-22

Posts: 48

Re: Can't get PPP to work

As I said in the last post of that thread, loading the ppp-generic module solved my problems. It didn't end up having to roll my own kernel fortunately.

Good luck.

Haakon

Member

From: Bergen, Norway

Registered: 2004-05-09

Posts: 109

Re: Can't get PPP to work

'modprobe ppp-generic' says ppp-generic is already in the kernel, so it doesn't help. I've tried rebuilding the kernel  (with abs) with my custom config files, but the problem remains.

Haakon

Member

From: Bergen, Norway

Registered: 2004-05-09

Posts: 109

Re: Can't get PPP to work

No, wait! After a clean reboot, pppd still told me to make /dev/ppp, but this time I didn't do it, and went straight to modprobing ppp_generic. Problem solved! Hah, happy Thanks for hints.