The K Desktop Environment

Most Frequently Asked questions

Prior to a release we can never know what kind of problems users will run into. They might either be caused by bugs, distribution specific issues or shortcoming of the user interface or original documentation.
This list tries to cover these problems we usually learn about through a series of requests for help via e-mail. Please check this page (and the kppp Handbook, hidden under the Help button) prior to reporting any bugs. Thanks.

Dial-up failures with exit code 2 (SUSE 9.x)

According to pppd's man page this exit status denotes an error in processing the options. /var/log/localmessages shows a message from pppd saying "Can't open options file /etc/ppp/peers/kppp: No such file or directory". Until this problem is solved in the SUSE RPM you might want to try out a suggestion sent in by Andreas Reiser:
  1. su to root
  2. cp /etc/ppp/peers/ppp /etc/ppp/peers/kppp
Neither the cause of the problem nor the potential security issues with above work around are currently known.

NO MSN/EAZ error with ISDN modems

If you are using kppp with your ISDN modem's terminal emulation (usually /dev/ttyI0) you'll have to set your MSN on this port. MSN abbreviation stands for Multiple Subscriber Numbering and consists of your area code plus your telephone number. To let kppp send this number go to the Modem Commands dialog and replace the init string (by default ATZ) with AT&EXXXXXX (where XXXXXX is your MSN).

Permission problems with /etc/resolv.conf (Gentoo Linux)

In case kppp complains about the permissions of /etc/resolv.conf and those permissions keep being changed again and again on each dial-in:

The distribution's own dial-up script (/etc/init.d/net.ppp0) creates a set of ip-up and ip-down scripts in the /etc/ppp directory. Those scripts are run automatically by pppd each time it establishes and takes down a connection. Appearantly those scripts don't ensure the proper file permissions. Until Gentoo has fixed this (reported) problem I suggest to

  1. remove or modify /etc/ppp/if-up and if-down
  2. restore the correct permissions by issuing the commands
    chown root.root /etc/resolv.conf; chmod 644 /etc/resolv.conf
    as the super user.

pppd dies with 2.4.x Linux kernel

Typical error messages in the system log:

pppd[1182]: pppd 2.3.11 started by user, uid 500
pppd[1182]: ioctl(PPPIOCGFLAGS): Invalid argument
pppd[1182]: tcsetattr: Invalid argument
pppd[1182]: Exit.

Install pppd 2.4.0b1 or better. See Documentation/Changes in the kernel sources for more info.

Why does kppp die after I entered the root password (RedHat) ?

Change the line SESSION=false in /etc/security/console.apps/kppp to SESSION=true.

Thanks to Gaunce Lewis who got this answer from RedHat's support.

How do I get rid of the password dialog (RedHat) ?

Red Hat chose to install kppp as a so-called consolehelper application. This PAM based mechanism avoids a setuid root installation. A quick and dirty solution to revert to the original behaviour is to delete the link to consolehelper and make the real binary setuid root. Open a terminal window, su to root and enter the following commands:

rm /usr/bin/kppp
chmod u+s /usr/sbin/kppp
ln -s /usr/sbin/kppp /usr/bin/kppp

Please refer to the Handbook for the security aspect of this setup.

pppd died - The remote system is required to authenticate itself ...

Add the noauth option to the /etc/ppp/options file on your system. If it currently contains the auth option then comment that line with a # character.

Why does my modem only connect at a low speed such as 9600?

Try setting the speed of the serial port to a lower value. Attempts to connect at a too high speed might cause a fallback to low rate such as 9600.

February 11, 2008 Harri Porten