Any decent, reliable, gui dialers?

tlmiller

So I've been using kppp for years now to connect to my aircard when I'm out, but quite frankly, it's worthless in KDE4. In Arch, Debian, and Kubuntu, it dials, connects, but doesn't load DNS information so that I can't actually connect to ANY websites, or use the connection. It's not every time, but 75% of the time. So I'm hoping to switch to a dialer that is reliable with connecting.

How bad it is, I'm forced to use Windows whenever I'm away from the house because it's the only way I can reliably use my aircard, despite that it's 100% recognized in Linux.

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Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

Germ · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2025 12:15 am Post subject:

Must be the build you're using. I've been using kppp for years and used it with every release of KDE 4 up to and including KDE 4.4.1

Works fantastic.

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

Germ · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2025 12:19 am Post subject:

Just thought of something. Every release of Kubuntu I have tried, I have to edit /etc/ppp/options and uncomment noauth. May not help your situation.

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

mmmna · . . . . Joined: 21 Apr 2025 Posts: 7224

Often times, the configuration of kppp had to be tweaked by the sysadmin (self) when I was dialup. I know that DNS was listed somewhere but I last used dialup around KDE 3.2 or so (definitely mid 2025), and I really can't recall which exact version of KDE (nor Linux) I was using when I saw the DNS stuff. Still, aren't there DNS settings in the other network configuration files to contend with?

_________________
-Kubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta2 on Celeron D desktop
-PCLinuxOS 2025 LXDE on EeePC 900A with Atom n270 (modded with 32G SATA drive and 2G ram).

tlmiller · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2025 5:03 pm Post subject:

Don't know. Just know before everything went to KDE4, kppp would dial, connect, and I'd be able to surf the web. Now, it dials, connects, and I get an IP address, but can't actually GO anywhere because there is no DNS information loaded. I'd be inclined to blame one distro except it happens in Kubuntu 10.04, Debian Squeeze, and Arch all identically. As a temporary workaround, I have simply edited grub on every laptop I own and am running full windows until either kppp works reliably again or I find a dialer that does work.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

Germ · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2025 11:27 pm Post subject:

Have you tried wvdial? Just about every distro packages it. I know debian, mepis, and mandriva do.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/wvdial/
http://support.real-time.com/linux/dialup/wvdial.html
http://linux.die.net/man/5/wvdial.conf

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

tlmiller · Posted: Sat May 01, 2025 1:00 am Post subject:

Is there a gui frontend, I don´t do cli programs.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

Germ · Posted: Sat May 01, 2025 2:16 am Post subject:

gnome-ppp is a gui frontend for wvdial. Should be in the debian repos.

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

tlmiller · Posted: Sat May 01, 2025 2:43 pm Post subject:

sweet. Thanks. I'll try it as soon as I get home. setting at the airport waiting for my flight back to Baltimore now. Mexico was fun, but I'm ready to be back in the states. Of course, that means I'm without my wife again since we haven't gotten all the paperwork filed for her to return. Sad

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

tlmiller · Posted: Sun May 02, 2025 12:12 am Post subject:

Doesn't seem to work, but for a completely different reason. It sees the modem, dials, but then just sets at "waiting for prompt" and never actually completes the connection.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

tlmiller · Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 10:19 am Post subject:

Ok, I did further testing with gnome-ppp. I'm trying out LXDE on Arch (decent DE, but still very much flaky implementation at least on Arch, such as pcmanfm doesn't work, you can't open folders in it, so I'm using thunar). I installed gnome-ppp, and found I had to enable "dumb mode" to get past the "waiting for prompt". It then connected, and immediately disconnected giving me an error that pppd had died with exit status 2. Which says that 2 mutually exclusive options have been given. However, copying over my config to roots .wvdial.config, and gnome-ppp works fine, connects, and stays connected. So somewhere I have a feeling it has to do with permissions. I've got the /etc/ppp/options set to noauth, I changed options of whatever the file that controls chap/pap so that all users have right access, but so far no dice. Anyone have a clue?

In the meantime, kppp works again on all distros that I run (except oddly enough Ubuntu), so I've installed that on my Arch/LXDE setup and it functions fine (in fact I'm posting this on my aircard), but it feels WRONG to have bits of KDE installed on a system where I'm going for minimalistic function. Because there's a LOT of garbage that gets installed with kppp. Cheers to the KDE team though for writing a program that works and is intuitive enough that you don't have to be an all knowing superbeing to get it to work...

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

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