Dear B Thomas,
Thank you for this very nice teaser.
While on the Trendnet site as you have been, you might have looked at
the respective drivers for models A1 and B1.
You might have downloaded the two drivers respectively in two different
subdirectories to prevent messing them up.
You could then have unzipped the files.
For the older A1 (obviously older from comparison of the respective zip
files), reading the file readme.txt unambiguously identifies it as a
SmartUSB which is served by the most recent FULL slmodem driver, not the
SLMODEMD compiled in ALSA mode, at
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/smartlink
Installation instructions for the USB version are available inside the
driver archive.
For the newer B1, yes it uses an Agere (Lucent) chipset, as can be seen
in file Driver/Win2K&XP/AGSETUP.INI where the modem is defined as
"TYPE=4" itself defined as SOFTPCI/MDCV92
In the PCI version this modem is supported under Linux by the same
SmartLink driver (always take the most recent slmodem not SLMODEMD file
as pointed above).
There is a success report at URL
http://community.asplinux.ru:81/forum/6/3685/
again for the PCI version - but since the author used an (obsolete)
version of the FULL slmodem, your USB model B1 **should** be supported
as well.
slmodem can work either with the SmartLink code (driver slamr/slusb) or
with ALSA drivers. I believe but may be wrong that ALSA drivers will not
support an USB modem. Which is why I believe that you must use the full
slmodem package, which you will have to compile, rather than the
precompiled easier to install SLMODEMD.
Please leave room for the possibility that my belief that slmodem will
serve Agere model B1 may be wrong.
Forgive me for adding that URL
http://www.trendnet.com/en/downloads/info/tfm-560u.htm
shows the two modems, easily distinguishable. Just in case.
Jacques
B Thomas wrote:
Hi,
I would be grateful if someone could clarify if the
Trendnet TFM-560U usb modem is supported.
The modems database lists this modem as being supported
by the smarlink modem driver. It is show at the bottom
of the page at http://64.126.95.102:8080/gromitkc/usblist.html
However there are two versions of this modem. The
older one, Version A1
http://www.trendnet.com/en/products/TFM-560U.htm
and the newer one, Version B1
http://www.trendnet.com/products/TFM-560U.htm
I suspect the modems database entry which is quite old
refers to the older one.
Trendnet support staff informed me that the chipset for
this modem is Agere SV92U2. I presume they are referring
to the newer (version B1).
I was able to google and find a Creatix CX610 softmodem
that uses the same chipset and claims to be supported
by linux
http://www.creatix.de/produkte/modems/datenblatt/CTX610_Vx.pdf
PS: I don't have the modem available with me so can not
test it. I wanted to ensure compatibility before I buy.
I am looking for a small portable modem for my laptop that
has open source drivers. Are there any such usb pen drive
modems supported by linux ?
sincerely
B Thomas
