Preparing your Computer for a PPP Connection

The following sections contain some fairly generic information for several common operating systems which might run Kdsl. The following sites may be of interest for further information about the ppp protocol, pppd and networking in general:

Preparing a Linux system for PPP

In order for Kdsl (or indeed, pppd) to work, your kernel must have ppp support compiled in. If this is not the case, get yourself the latest version of pppd from any of the popular Linux archives (such as ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Network/serial/ppp/, and recompile your kernel with ppp support enabled.

It is important when configuring the kernel to allow support for the following (which is found under the 'Network device support' section: PPP (point-to-point protocol) support PPP multilink support (experimental) PPP over Ethernet

Once the kernel has been recompiled and supports ppp, it is also important to obtain the latest version of pppd . At the time of writing, the latest version is 2.4.1 and requires a patch to allow PPP over Ethernet connections (commonly known as PPPOE). This is required for xDSL accounts.

You can download pppd from here. http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/download/src/ppp-2.4/ppp-2.4.1.tar.gz

The required patch to support pppoe can be downloaded here http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/blfs/5.0/ppp-2.4.1-pppoe-5.patch

Firstly, unpack the sorce code for pppd, and then enter into the directory. From there apply the path and compile pppd with the following commands:


patch -Np1 -i ../ppp-2.4.1-pppoe-5.patch
./configure
make
make install

Kdsl tries to find out for itself if your kernel supports PPP. If not, you will be notified as soon as Kdsl starts up.

For Linux 2.x kernels, the pppd daemon should be version 2.3 or greater. You can find out what version your system has, by issuing the command pppd --version on the comamnd line. None of the pppd daemons actually have a --version, but putting the option in will cause the pppd daemon to issue an error message, and then to print out a list of options and other information, which includes the version of the pppd daemon.

Running Kdsl for the First Time

When Kdsl is executed, you are presented with the following screen. To setup your account, press the setup Button.


An example image

Setting up Accounts

Firstly click on the type of account you wish to use - either DSL for xDSL accounts, Dialup or ISDN. Once selected, type in a name for the account type, followed by the username and password that was provided for you by your ISP. If you selected the DSL account type, the 'Enable pppoe plugin' section will be made available for you. If you have the pppoe plugin installed, select this option and locate you pppoe plugin (usually called pppoe.so). Alternatively you can choose not to use the plugin, and Kdsl will use the 'pppoe' binary file if it is in your path. Set the connection timeout to your desired amount in seconds (10 seconds is adequate) and confifgure any other options you may need. The default settings are recommended, and should work with most configurations.


An example image

Setting up Themes

When you click on the Themes icon in the setup pages, you can install new dock icon themes you wish to use for your internet connections. Themes can be downloaded at http://kdslbroadband.sourceforge.net


The Theme window