Configuring and Running KPPP
============================

In order to use KPPP, you must first be a member of the "dip" group.
Membership in this group is a prerequisite for any and all use of ppp in
Debian. If you are not a member of this group, you will not be able to run
the ppp daemon (pppd) or make a dialup connection. Since KPPP's backend
runs SUID root, membership in the "dialout" group is not needed to access
device nodes.

KPPP also requires that the ppp daemon be run with the "noauth" option.
However, pppd's default setting, in /etc/ppp/options, is "auth", and for
security reasons it should remain so. To work around this problem, uncomment
"noauth" in /etc/ppp/peers/kppp-options. You should then be able to connect.

Note that if "noauth" is uncommented, a setting of "noauth" in
/etc/ppp/options will conflict with KPPP. Note also that uncommenting
"noauth" opens the possibility that other malicious members of the "dip"
group might potentially abuse the ppp daemon.

Finally, if you are uncertain as to which device node represents your modem,
you can try to find out by running "dmesg | grep tty". The output of this
command will sometimes provide the needed hint.

If the answer seems to be that your modem is on a node, such as ttyS28, that
KPPP does not accept as a configuration option, then you should create a
symlink from that node to /dev/modem (by running, as root,
"ln -s /dev/ttyS28 /dev/modem", where ttyS28 is replaced by whatever node your
modem is on). Then simply configure KPPP to use /dev/modem. Further modems
with non-standard device nodes can likewise be symlinked to /dev/modem[0-3].

If you use udev, then symlinks in /dev will not be preserved
across reboots. In this case, you should edit, as root, /etc/udev/links.conf,
adding a line that resembles "L modem    /dev/ttyS28". You must then either
reboot, or run "/etc/init.d/udev restart", for the link to be created.

If you believe that your modem node should be included in KPPP's default list,
and you are using a common type of hardware, you can always file a wishlist
bug against the kppp package, although the package maintainers maintain the
right to judge your device node too esoteric for inclusion.
