[conspire] (forw) Need to Install Ubuntu Linux

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Daniel Gimpelevich (daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us):

> Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 01:01:58 +0000 (UTC)
> > Rick Moen said that to get a serial port I should look for an "old"
> > computer.
> 
> Seriously?
> 1) New motherboards with a COM1 pin header are still common.
> 2) PCIe serial cards are easy to get.
> 3) USB to DB9 adapters are everywhere.
> Regardless, I would expect a current Ubuntu to completely choke on
> dial-up…

I wondered about that latter bit, myself.

There's a question that might be of some delicacy about why someone 
in Palo Alto is relying on dialup Internet access in 2017, as there's a
possibility that it's all the family can afford on a retiree income or
for some similar reason.  (I urge _not_ raising this with Robert, though
I'm reasonably sure people wouldn't anyway, without my reminder.)  

Whenever vanishingly few people use a software function, there is 
(as you're implying) a serious risk that it will ship in broken
condition, in any given distro, because someone broke a necessary
component accidentally and nobody noticed this fact in QA.  Quite a
number of major Linux distribution releases have been found, usually
long after the fact, to have broken serial drivers or something to do
with PPP, or some other relevant software layers that just weren't
tested prior to release and so nobody knew.  (I started wasting time 
looking up the exact names of the kernel drivers in question, and then
stopped myself and said 'No, this is crazy.  It doesn't matter what
their module or filenames are.  The point is we don't need any of this
stuff.'  Gone with FOSSIL drivers and UUCP 'G' protocol and the whole 
damned mess.  Bye-ee!  Those brain cells can now be freed and used for
better things.

The world has changed, even if I _did_ recently buy a fully restored
rotary-dial Western Electric wall telephone for my 1956 kitchen, just for
hilarity purposes.

For the record, I do _not_ think I advised Robert to look for an 'old'
computer in order to get a serial port.  At least, I cannot remember
having said so.  I don't even remember that particular point even coming
up.

For Robert's sake, I hope dialup and PPP still do happen to work on
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus.

askubuntu.com suggests either the wvdial package or the gnome-ppp one.
Official docs:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto/SetUpDialer
...but it doesn't say anything specific about it working in Xenial, 
doubtless because nobody asked and nobody checked.  Hence the downside
risk.

Honestly, if caught in that trap (serial support or PPP mysteriously
doesn't work in my distro), I'd be tempted to maybe look for an old
(used) Apple Airport base station that has a built-in modem for ISP
dialup.  Like this one, about $10.
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-M8799LL-AirPort-Extreme-Station/dp/B0000899ZA

But really, dialup ISPs?  In 2017?  The other solution would be for him
to get something better than dialup.

Reminds me, I need to specifically tag the modem-rant pages on my FAQ 
as irrelevant relics from another millenium, because otherwise people
are going to wonder 'Dude, are you Rip van Winkle and just woke up?
Good news, the Iron Curtain fell.  Bad news, a KGB guy is manipulating
domestic politics.'