The Linux Diald FAQ

by Eric Schenk, eschenk@rogers.wave.ca and Gordon Soukoreff.

1. Introduction

• 1.1 What is diald?
• 1.2 Where can I find out more?
• 1.3 Where can I get diald?
• 1.4 Where can I get the Linux Diald FAQ?
• 1.5 The linux-diald mailing list.
• 1.6 Reporting bugs in diald.
• 1.7 Contributing the the FAQ.
• 1.8 Authorship and Copyright.

2. General Questions

• 2.1 How does diald work?
• 2.2 What kernel versions will diald work with?
• 2.3 What other software will I need to use diald?
• 2.4 Does diald introduce much overhead on the line it manages?
• 2.5 Can I get diald to share the modem with other packages?
• 2.6 Can I make diald connect at fixed times (e.g. to deliver mail)?
• 2.7 Can diald deal with a service that uses callback?
• 2.8 Can I use diald to make connections to more than one site at the same time?
• 2.9 My connections time out before diald connects. Can I make them wait?
• 2.10 Diald fails on reading the /etc/diald.conf line with tcp.www in it.
• 2.11 Diald fails on reading the /etc/diald.conf line with tcp.ftp-data in it.
• 2.12 Diald fails on reading the /etc/diald.conf line with udp.netbios-ns in it.
• 2.13 The syslog messages generated by diald are messed up. Why?
• 2.14 Can diald help me have mail addressed to my site delivered to me?
• 2.15 Diald is dropping the first few packets when the link comes up! Why?
• 2.16 When diald is connecting logins and su's get delayed. Why?
• 2.17 Can diald deal with incoming connections?
• 2.18 When I start diald from /etc/rc* it fails to even run. Why?
• 2.19 When I start diald from /etc/rc* it starts Ok, but can't make connections. It works fine when I start diald from the command line. Why?

3. Routing Problems

• 3.1 Can diald do proxyarp routing?
• 3.2 I want to route to a subnet, how can I do that?
• 3.3 I have a dynamic IP connection, and if the connection gets broken half way through a session I can't reconnect. Is there anything I can do?

4. PPP specific problems.

• 4.1 I started up diald in ppp mode, but it started a SLIP connection instead of running pppd. What did I do wrong?
• 4.2 Diald starts up pppd, but pppd hangs without finishing the connection.
• 4.3 I started up diald in ppp mode, and now I'm getting permission errors in my system logs, and ppp won't connect.
• 4.4 The stuff I put into the /etc/ppp/ip-up script for pppd freezes. Why?
• 4.5 I am getting messages that say ``Error forwarding data packet to physical device: Message too long'' in my syslog, and connections aren't working properly. Why?
• 4.6 I am getting messages that say ``Restart diald with mtu set to X to avoid errors.'' in my syslog. Why?
• 4.7 I'm getting the message "PPP network layer died, but link did not. Probable configuration error." in my system logs. What does it mean?

5. SLIP specific problems.

• 5.1 I'm using DIP to make the slip connection and things aren't working.
• 5.2 Can I use the BOOTP protocol to determine my IP addresses?

6. Problems controlling the connection.

• 6.1 My connection keeps coming up, for no apparent reason.
• 6.2 Once my connection goes up it won't go down.
• 6.3 I'm having trouble making diald come up for nameserver lookups.
• 6.4 How come diald doesn't notice when my modem gets hung up on?
• 6.5 The link keeps coming up whenever I su or create a new xterm.
• 6.6 Can diald keep my connection up all the time?
• 6.7 Can I configure diald so that it won't make connections at certain times?
• 6.8 I have really bad phone lines that freeze up. Can I get diald to notice?
• 6.9 I use sendmail with UUCP, but sendmail is causing diald to bring up the connection. How do I stop it?
• 6.10 When I send mail to a local site diald brings the link up. Why?
• 6.11 I'm using dynamic addresses, and the first TCP session over a line always freezes.