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Homechoice: Unsupported Operating Systems

How do I connect to Homechoice 1Mbit using Linux?

The work so far has all been done by John Wilkins;
A mirror of his work may be downloaded from here

John writes:

If anyone is interested in the fruits of my attempts on getting
the hc dongle talking with linux, I've posted my latest kernel
patches at 
http://www.winskil.uklinux.net/hc512/hc512_patch02.tar.gz

I /must/ stress that this is JUST MY AMATUER EFFORTS and is
definately not a guarenteed solution.  Nor is it supported or
endorsed etc in any way by HC.  It requires a build of (at least)
the kernel modules and some additional patching (documented in
the readme in the tar file).

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1) Install kernel source from CD's (/usr/src)

2) Backup the /lib/modules directory (cd /lib;tar cvf modules-orig.tar ./modules/*)

3) Copy the latest ftdi_sio.c and ftdi_sio.h (from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ftdi-usb-sio/)
files to /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ overwriting existing files (I know you
should back them up, but if you cock something up, it's better simply just to
re-install kernel source from CD).

4) Apply John Wilkins patches (currently here: http://www.winskil.uklinux.net/hc512/hc512_patch02.tar.gz
but check: http://www.ingenotech.com/FAQ) as so:
   # patch /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c /tmp/patch02/jw_2419-hc02.patch.c 
   # patch /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.h /tmp/patch02/jw_2419-hc02.patch.h 

5) Edit /usr/src/linux/Makefile. Add to line: EXTRAVERSION = -HC (or something)

6) Follow the instruction at: http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/kernel.html to
re-build kernel

7) Add to /etc/lilo.conf:

image=/boot/bzImage-HC
label=Homechoice
root=/dev/hda7
append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
vga=788
read-only

After adding run: 
# /sbin/lilo

8) Don't forget to add boot sector to dos partition (If dual booting with windoze):
# dd if=/dev/hda7 bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/win_c/bootsect.lnx
(Check c:\boot.ini)

9) Reboot!

10) Place hc512 in /usr/local/bin and edit as appropriate. Add following to
/etc/rc.local to run at boot:

/usr/local/bin/hcup512
sleep 15;/sbin/route add default dev ppp0

11) /etc/resolv.conf: (Should already've be added by previous step)
nameserver 10.24.252.162
nameserver 10.24.252.161

12) Do: 
# route add default dev ppp0

13) Check /etc/nsswitch.conf

14) Test: 
# ping www.google.com

15) To browse, add proxy settings to web-browser: proxy.homechoice.co.uk
port: 3128

16) To share your network connection follow the simple instructions at:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Masquerading-Simple-HOWTO/

References:
http://www.ingenotech.com/FAQ
http://ftdi-usb-sio.sourceforge.net
http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/kernel.html
http://www.maxuk.net/hc/faq.html