[H-GEN] hmm seemingly a problem

[Jason Henry Parker]

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Stephen Brine <sbrine at powerup.com.au> writes:

> Now nothing really has changed on this machine.

If nothing has changed it would not have stopped working.  Instead of
insisting nothing has changed, go back over your movements in the past
week---what did you mess with?  Did you install some new gadget or
tweak something?

(You also haven't told us what sort of system you're using; this makes
it a bit harder to know what the problem is.)

The next step (well really the first step) is to look at your
logfiles.  On Debian boxes and other installations, ppp will talk to
syslog.  Head out to /var/log and grep in there for output from the
pppd.  Next, read the manpage for pppd and find out how to turn on
verbose logging, then run it once inside X, and once outside.

*Next*, if that doesn't turn on the little light above your head, find
the script responsible for dialling, and check if it is a shell or
perl script or a binary.  It will probably be a shell script.  Run it
by hand, like this:

        $ bash -x /usr/bin/pon
	+ '[' -z '' -a -x /etc/ppp/ppp_on_boot ']'
	+ '[' -z '' -a '!' -f /etc/ppp/peers/provider ']'
	+ '[' '' -a '!' -f /etc/ppp/peers/ ']'
	+ exec /usr/sbin/pppd call provider

All those plus signs tell me what path the computer is taking through
the code:  

        * it checks to see if some string is empty (it is) *AND* if
          /etc/ppp/ppp_on_boot is executable (see the output of `man
          test'); /etc/ppp/ppp_on_boot does not exist on my system, so
          the test fails;

        * it checks to see if some string is empty (it is) *AND* if
          /etc/ppp/peers/provider does not exist; on my system it does
          exist, so the test fails;

        * next it checks to see if some string is NOT empty (it's not)
          and if /etc/ppp/peers is not a file (it's a directory); this
          test also fails on my system;

        * finally, it execs the command /usr/sbin/pppd with the
          arguments `call' and `provider'.  See `man pppd' for more
          information.

> In short Problem is I can't dial out from a command line but I can
> dial from an X session.

Okay.  Run

        $ set

both inside the X environment, and then outside.  If you're going to
send them on here, just send a diff or something.  Also a copy of the
script would be handy---it can be a bit tough to diagnose a problem
without seeing the code!

Don't forget to remove or obscure any passwords or other sensitive
information you might send.

jason
-- 
4.  A SIMIAN should respond to a TYPE or FASTER request with an
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