Handbook:Basic Server Configuration:Modem-specific Guidance

Editor's note - this section is a great place for users to contribute modem-specific setup

tips that can benefit others who might be struggling with the same problem(s)!

This section contains some setup-related issues that are dependent upon the modem and/or fax board you have selected. The information included here is by no means exhaustive; it reflects feedback and contributions from users accumulated over multiple HylaFAX versions and/or operating system releases.

Mainpine IQ Express

Unless you're using kernel 2.6.24 or later you'll have to patch the Linux kernel for this card to work. Here are the steps:

Note: Or you can use hylafax+ from hylafax.sourceforge.net 
Beware though that you might still end up compiling bits if you don't have the right match.
With some effort I got it to work fine on Debian Lenny amd 64.

Make sure you have all of the packages installed to build the kernel sources.

yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools"
yum -y install unifdef

Download and install the kernel source rpm for your current kernel.

rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/updates/SRPMS/kernel-[...].src.rpm

Download the kernel patch into the SOURCES directory.

cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES

wget http://people.ifax.com/~aidan/mainpine/linux-2.6.9-55.EL-ifax1.patch

Update the kernel spec file to include the new patch.

cd ../SPECS/

vim kernel-2.6.spec

You must redefine the "dist" variable in order to distinguish the patched kernel from the standard kernel built for your distro:

%define dist .el5ifax2

Around line 1607 add:
# mainpine patch - iFAX
Patch99995: linux-2.6.9-55.EL-ifax1.patch

Around line 1956 add:
# mainpine patch - iFAX
%patch99995 -p1

Save and exit.

Now build the new kernel with rpmbuild:

rpmbuild -ba --target i686 kernel-2.6.spec

ls -l ../RPMS/i686

In your grub.conf, you must add the following to the end of your "kernel" line and reboot:

8250.nr_uarts=24

The 24 will enable 24 serial ports. If you're using a Mainpine IQ Express 4 Port board, enabling 8 ports should be enough to cover the onboard serial ports and those of the IQ Express board. To see how many ports are currently available and/or occupied try this:

cat /proc/tty/driver/serial

To complete the configuration of this board with HylaFAX, do the following:

1. Copy the Mainpine IQ Express prototype file "mainpine-10" to /var/spool/hylafax/config/mainpine-10
2. Run faxaddmodem and specify Class "1.0".

You should see that your modem is properly recognized now. When you're done configuring your modems, enable the faxgetty's in /etc/inittab like normal.

Mainpine Rockforce

Useful installation tips for getting the Rockforce Duo+, Quatro+ and Octo+ series fax boards working on linux can be found at http://www.mainpine.com/q_a_linux.html. The bottom line is that you need to configure the board manually on 2.4 kernels using setserial, and that kernel-2.6 distributions will, for the most part, auto-configure the board. To see what your kernel has done, type the following after a recent reboot:

dmesg | grep tty

RHEL4

A common problem on RHEL4 and RHEL4-derived distributions such as CentOS is that Red Hat only enables 4 "non-legacy 8250/16550 serial ports" which is what the Rockforce boards use. This becomes a problem for Octo+ users, because there's not enough serial devices available to complete the auto-configuration. The following procedure describes how to rebuild Red Hat's kernels with more serial ports for the Octo+.

First, retrieve the latest CentOS 4 kernel source update from a CentOS
mirror site. (At the time of writing this web page, it was:
kernel-2.6.9-34.EL.src.rpm)

Install the RPM by typing:

rpm -i kernel-2.6.9-34.EL.src.rpm

Make the kernel-source RPM:

cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
vi kernel-2.6.spec
edit line 59 (exact line may vary), and change buildsource to 1

If you have a minimal install, you may need to:

yum install rpm-build
yum install gcc
yum install redhat-rpm-config

rpmbuild -bb --target=noarch kernel-2.6.spec

(note we use noarch so we don't actually have to wait for compiles
of all the kernels)

Note: The resulting kernel in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch is good for
*any* config and could be saved and save building for future needs

Install the new kernel-source RPM:

cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch
rpm -i kernel-sourcecode-[...].rpm
Note: You might need --nodeps if it asks for qt-devel and gtk2-devel

Now configure/build/install your new kernel:

cd /usr/src/linux-[version]
cp configs/kernel-[version]-[architecture].config .config
yum install ncurses-devel
make menuconfig
Navigate to Device Drivers -> Character devices -> Serial drivers
Select "Maximum number of non-legacy 8250/16550 serial ports" and change to 12
Exit and save configuration
make rpm
rpm -i /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/[architecture(i386)]/kernel-[version]custom.[architecture].rpm

Create initial ram disk (substitute your new kernel version for the one
given in the example):

mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-34.ELcustom.img 2.6.9-34.ELcustom

Edit /etc/grub.conf

Add the following as the first kernel entry, substituting your new
kernel version and ramdisk for the ones given in the example.

title CentOS (2.6.9-34.ELcustom)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.ELcustom ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.ELcustom.img

Save grub.conf and reboot. There should now be enough serial ports
available to use your Octo.

Fedora Core 6

With the latest Linux kernels, such as that packaged in Fedora Core 6, you only need to add this line in the /etc/grub.conf file:

8250.nr_uarts=8

(or how may you want to add)

Since it has support for 32 ports already, this makes it register those ports in the OS during the next boot.