[Gllug] How to access the internet (PPP)

[Richard Cohen]

On Wed, 9 Feb 2000, Paul Nasrat wrote:

> >You can use a dynamic ppp connection with ipcahins and use you linux box
> >as a router
> >I'll post the scripts Ive used if anyone os interested
> 
> 
> That reminds me I've configured PPP following the guide at
> http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/ppp-linux.html but the permissions on the serial
> port keep resetting.  I've put a script in rc.local to set them on boot but
> I'm still having to su and rechange them after each connect.
> 
> Anyone got any ideas.  (RH6.1 - vanilla kernel atm).
> 
> Paul

There is almost certainly a getty of some form attempting to connect to
the serial device.  I don't know about others, but mgetty chown's the port
when it gets control of it.

That's actually a nice page.  Most of the way down, it says:

  Note that some programs (like linuxconf or mgetty) like to change the 
  permissions of the serial port back to a more protected form. So, don't 
  run linuxconf or mgetty, or get used to having to keep resetting the
  permissions of the serial port. Alternatively, get one of the more
  recent versions of pppd (eg 2.3.9). If you put the port (eg.,
  /dev/ttyS1) into /etc/ppp/options, instead of on the pppd command line
  as I do in the scripts below, pppd will connect to the port as root,
  rather than as user. Then you do not have to worry about the permissions
  on the port. 

I would suspect that it's actually linuxconf causing the problem if you're
running a stock Redhat.  I don't know, as I've never run linuxconf in
anger in my life :-)

Cheers
Richard