Here are a few steps you can follow to check out the dialup modem on your system.
Hook up your modem to your FreeBSD system, boot the system, and, if
your modem has status indication lights, watch to see whether the
modem's DTR indicator lights when the login: prompt appears
on the system's console - if it lights up, that should mean that
FreeBSD has started a getty process on the appropriate
communications port and is waiting for the modem to accept a call.
If the DTR indicator doesn't light, login to the FreeBSD system
through the console and issue a ps ax to see if FreeBSD is trying
to run a getty process on the correct port. You should see a
lines like this among the processes displayed:
114 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0
115 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd1
If you see something different, like this:
114 d0 I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0
^
and the modem has not accepted a call yet, this means that getty
has completed its open on the communications port. This could
indicate a problem with the cabling or a mis-configured modem, because
getty should not be able to open the communications port until
CD (carrier detect) has been asserted by the modem.
If you do not see any getty processes waiting to open the desired
ttyd? port, double-check your entries in /etc/ttys to
see if there are any mistakes there. Also, check the log file
/var/log/messages to see if there are any log messages from
init or getty regarding any problems. If there are any
messages, triple-check the configuration files /etc/ttys and
/etc/gettytab, as well as the appropriate device special
files /dev/ttyd?, for any mistakes, missing entries, or
missing device special files.
Try dialing into the system; be sure to use 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop
bit on the remote system. If you do not get a prompt right away, or
get garbage, try pressing <Enter> about once per
second. If you still do not see a login: prompt after a while,
try sending a BREAK. If you are using a high-speed modem to
do the dialing, try dialing again after locking the dialing modem's
interface speed (via AT&B1 on a USR Sportster, for
example).
If you still cannot get a login: prompt, check
/etc/gettytab again and double-check that
/etc/ttys for
the line matches a name of a capability in /etc/gettytab
nx= entry matches another gettytab capability
name
tc= entry matches another gettytab capability
name
If you dial but the modem on the FreeBSD system will not answer, make
sure that the modem is configured to answer the phone when DTR is
asserted. If the modem seems to be configured correctly, verify that
the DTR line is asserted by checking the modem's indicator lights
(if it has any).
If you have gone over everything several times and it still does not work,
take a break and come back to it later. If it still does not work,
perhaps you can send an electronic mail message to the FreeBSD general questions mailing list
<freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>describing your modem and your problem, and the good folks on the list will
try to help.