pppd complains with this message. odie linux # pppd 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. This is a cut from my current kernel .config file. CONFIG_PPP=m # CONFIG_PPP_MULTILINK is not set CONFIG_PPP_FILTER=y CONFIG_PPP_ASYNC=m CONFIG_PPP_SYNC_TTY=m CONFIG_PPP_DEFLATE=m CONFIG_PPP_BSDCOMP=m CONFIG_PPPOE=m If i compile ppp into the kernel, this problem is resolved, but obviously not ideal. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.pppd 2. 3. Actual Results: 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. Expected Results: pppd start and all the unreadable characters Portage 2.0.50-r3 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3_pre20040207-r0, 2.6.5-gentoo) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.5-gentoo i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Mobile CPU 2.00GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.4.6 distcc 2.13 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/distributions/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X aalib acl acpi alsa apache2 apm avi berkdb bonobo cdr crypt cups dga distcc doc dvd encode esd fbcon foomaticdb gd gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile imlib ipv6 java jpeg libg++ libwww mad mbox mikmod mmx motif mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pcmcia pdflib perl php png postgres ppds pwdb python qt quicktime readline samba sasl sdl slang spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd truetype usb x86 xml xml2 xmms xv zlib"
Hi, does `/sbin/modprobe -v ppp` load the necessary modules? Do you use module autoloading? Can you insmod ppp_generic? Does /dev/ppp exist? "If you have ppp_generic as a module, and you are using devfsd (the devfs daemon), you will need to add a line like this to your /etc/devfsd.conf: LOOKUP ppp MODLOAD" Did you use ppp_generic module with 2.4? Did module autoloading work?
modprobe -v ppp FATAL: Module ppp not found. odie bin # ls -la /dev/ppp crw-r--r-- 1 root root 108, 0 Apr 10 01:24 /dev/ppp modprobe ppp_generic gives this in dmesg PPP generic driver version 2.4.2 devfs_mk_dev: could not append to parent for ppp failed to register PPP device (-17) I added the line into devfsd.conf. Seems to make no difference. I guess the problem lies with the dmesg error. If i compile it into the kernel it works.
have you done make modules_install ?
Yes odie net # pwd /lib/modules/2.6.5-gentoo/kernel/drivers/net odie net # ls 3c59x.ko dummy.ko ppp_async.ko ppp_generic.ko pppoe.ko slhc.ko wireless bsd_comp.ko irda ppp_deflate.ko ppp_synctty.ko pppox.ko typhoon.ko
Devfs is selected? # grep DEVFS /usr/src/linux/.config CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=y CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT=y # CONFIG_DEVFS_DEBUG is not set Can you try if it works with sys-kernel/development-sources?
odie lib # grep DEVFS /usr/src/linux/.config CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=y CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT=y # CONFIG_DEVFS_DEBUG is not set Emerging development-sources. Will let u know.
Tried development-sources. Still exactly the same error.
I don't know what you should do next. Sorry. I found some pages referencing "devfs_mk_cdev" (note the c): http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0312.0/1053.html "> Dec 4 16:45:29 dali kernel: devfs_mk_cdev: could not append to parent for snd/hwC0D0 check that /dev/snd is not a file or link or whatever. Remove it, remove /lib/dev-state/snd and try again. If it persists (i.e. you have non-directory /dev/snd appearing every time on boot) try to find out why it is created. ALSA initscript in Mandrake creates /dev/snd as link to /proc/whatever if it believes devfs is not present. It may be one possible reason." http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/debian-user-200401/msg01821.html "> Something restores /dev from backing store during boot; this is wrong and long > obsolete. The right way to do it is to add RESTORE directive to devfsd.conf: wonderful. this was indeed the issue. my debian unstable machine had a /etc/devfsd/devices.d/ppp file which contained the directives to have devfsd create it on boot. once i removed this file, and rebooted my 2.6.0 kernel with modular ppp_generic, it all worked again." Well, i don't know if this is helpful. I am still using a 2.4 kernel. devfs is obsoleted and udev is the new tool.
I have the same problem with 2.6.4. Compiling all into the kernel gets me on the network (except for PPPoE, which I believe is supposed to excluded). Otherwise, I see the same problem as the reporter. It all works fine for me with 2.4.25 as modules. This forum thread mentions the same problem: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=155415 One more thing: when compiled as modules, I ran modprobe -v ppp_generic just for the heck of it, because it's supposed to be a module. modprobe reported back that it could not install ppp_generic because it was already installed in the kernel. Yet lsmod did not show it. Could the kernel somehow be confused about whether ppp_generic is truly a module or a built-in?
I managed to solve the problem by commenting out the line #RESTORE /lib/dev-state in /etc/devfsd.conf. pppd now works correctly. I'm not sure why or what RESTORE /lib/dev-state but everything seems to work now. I'm happy that the bug gets closed. Thanks for you help tove.
That's great news, except that fix won't work for me because I am using udev, not devfs. Anyone have an idea of how this bug works?
I ran "make clean" and rebuilt my kernel and now everything works beautifully. Could have been a wierd build order bug. Or it could have been because I copied my 2.4 .config file to the 2.6 tree before I read that I should not do that.
fine, so we can close this one
*** Bug 60023 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
reopening at user request
Hi, I had the same problem. The problem was that /dev/ppp already existed, try ll /dev/ppp , if its there do rm /dev/ppp and try running pppd again or doing modprobe, that did it for me. Good luck
brian: please try martin's solution
