Dialup/Wireless Modem Upgrade Packages for Puppy 4.3+

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rerwin
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#141 Post by rerwin »

vanchutr wrote:Richard,

I have just tried your 3G_pupdial-wireless-13.pet package and have been successful on Icepup 006
Thank you
If Icepup 006 is the "bleeding edge" puppy developed recently, please do not use 3G_pupdial-wireless-13.pet on it! I have stated several times, most recently yelling in all caps, that it is only for puppies 4.1 and 4.2. It was coded for that era and should not be used beyond its design environment.

Continuing to use the obsolete packages on a new puppy sets the wrong example for others. If they run into any trouble, there is no one to help them out with that hybrid concoction -- I have long forgotten the details of how I implemented that and have no interest in going back into history. All of my development is being done on the 4.3.1 (+lupu) package. That is where I need the feedback from users, so I can make corrections there.

EDIT: I have now examined the icepup iso file and see that it is based on the current level of "woof" and is similar internally to wary 5.1.1. Therefore, the 4.3.1+ upgrade is not appropriate for it. You do not need to install an obsolete modem implementation onto icepup. Barry's updated modem support is already included in icepup 006. Lucid pup does not use Barry's "zzz" version of modem support. Any modem support for icepup 006 must come from Barry, who has re-assumed responsibility for it.
Richard

vanchutr
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#142 Post by vanchutr »

I don't know much about kernel or something about woof-made.
On ly one thing that my laptop can connect wireless with my USB-3G modem (-ZTE...) after installed your package (in icepup 006)
I must say thanh your package. That's all.

aarf

#143 Post by aarf »

puppeee4.4rc2, pupdail version unknown. Internet dailer version 1.53.

my connection is on /dev/ttyACM1 or sometimes /dev/ttyACM0. sometimes the default in the display window goes to ttyACM2
there is no way of getting /dev/ttyACM2 back to /dev/ttyACM0 by probing or manual probing. to fix it i have to use geany and go into /etc/wvdial.conf and edit it back to

Code: Select all

Modem = /dev/ttyACM0

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pemasu
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#144 Post by pemasu »

Rerwin. Thank you of exploring Ice Puppy-006. That build is quite experimental to test new kernel, but is has guts of Snow Puppy-016, which is made using 16.4.2011 woof.
Is there any need to install your made rerwin_wary511_update-1.pet to the Ice Puppy/Snow Puppy.
I noticed that there is also pinstall.sh, which removes obsolete files.
etc/udev/rules.d/41-usb_modeswitch-puppy.rules was the only file which did exist in Ice Puppy.

I am asking, because I seem to find people testing my builds and they are asking questions in several threads...and I try to keep up if there is problems which could be cured.

Thank you of all your hard efforts trying to help people with modem connections. I have tried to help by compiling extra wireless drivers, mostly in Snow Puppy thread, but also some old phoneline drivers. I have noticed they are much difficult stuff than wireless drivers. I appreciate your work really.

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rerwin
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#145 Post by rerwin »

pemasu,
Sorry to be so long in responding to your above posting. I somehow missed it and have been away for a week.

Regarding the rerwin_wary511_update-1 package, it would be OK to install it on Ice Puppy if you are not planning to upgrade soon to the newer woof base that Barry is working on. Since you posted, he has confirmed my fixes in the package, although he implemented one of them differently than I did.

Although all the file removal in the pinstall script is scary, it merely cleans out files that were used as I evolved the modem support. That handles any puppy installation no matter how the user modified it with my modem updates and augments Barry's cleanup efforts in woof/wary.
aarf wrote:my connection is on /dev/ttyACM1 or sometimes /dev/ttyACM0. sometimes the default in the display window goes to ttyACM2
there is no way of getting /dev/ttyACM2 back to /dev/ttyACM0 by probing or manual probing. to fix it i have to use geany and go into /etc/wvdial.conf and edit it back to
Code: Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
That is very interesting. This behavior suggests that you have multiple devices that use the ttyACM devices and that they get assigned numbers based on outside factors. You should be able to try each possibility by using the "Test" button, which is labeled ttyACM-something, different from the selection/detection. If that is the case, click on it to test the device shown in the button. The name should cycle through all of the ttyACM names. If it does not work that way, I have something more to fix, it would appear.

I think 4.4 is quite up to date with modem support, although I have a "final" set of changes that could be added to it. I plan to build a package with those changes but tailored for puppeee. But I doubt they would fix the problem you see.

Could you re-create the situation and then run pmodemdiag to create a diag file (/root/pmodemdiag-(something).tar.gz), then post or PM the file? I anticipated such a situation in my coding, but do not have multiple ACM devices to run a complete test with. I hope you can do that for me. Thanks.
Richard

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rerwin
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modem-modprobe package fixed for lupu 5.2+

#146 Post by rerwin »

':oops:' With much embarrassment, I have discovered that I caused the modem-modprobe package of 4/21 to hang up when being installed into lupus 5.2 and 5.25 (and any puppy that defaults to the full depmod utility). That is now corrected in the newly uploaded "6/23" version of modem-modprobe.

Beyond fixing that gaffe, the new package removes the cause of repeated "invalid operand" messages being logged and now supports the new Lucid Puppy Retro version based on the 2.6.30.2 kernel, allowing it to include more modem and wifi drivers not already present.

Most of those drivers should be obtained from the "Simplified Puppy 4.3.1/4.3.2 Upgrade Center" forum thread and not from tempestuous' thread for additional kernel 2.6.30.2 drivers. The Upgrade Center drivers are tailored such that any or all of them can be included in an updated (2.6.30.2-based) puppy. All but one of those packages can be added to lupu-retro -- the "4.3.1.1 upgrade" package must not be installed in lupu, since the modem-modprobe package already provides its functionality. However, the driver package for the VIA wifi devices should not be included in a lupu upgrade unless you absolutely must have it. That is because it makes some significant changes when installed, that are not otherwise needed.

But the Intel (536 & 537*) modem drivers are not directly available at the Upgrade Center. They must be extracted from a puppy 4.3.1 CD or image, pup-431-scsi-intel_modems.iso. From the pup-431.sfs file, copy and merge the entire /lib/modules/2.6.30.2/intelmodem directory into lupu-retro (/lib/modules/2.6.30.2/).

The full instructions for remastering an upgraded puppy are in the Upgrade Center thread. Just install the modem-modprobe package instead of the 4.3.1.1-Upgrade package.

I am continuing to research modem-modprobe support of the new debian/2.6.30.2-based Dpup, but have encountered an Xorgwizard/xwin bootup issue that will take some work.

Regarding normal remastering: that does not work for lupu 5.25 retro/2.6.30.2, because it has been updated for newer puppies. The special upgrade version in the modem-modprobe package includes a modified version of the older remaster script. Therefore, if you plan to remaster the retro, you can use modem-modprobe for that. When it is installed, it presents a dialog window for starting the special remaster. Be sure to leave that unanswered until you have made all of your updates to puppy.

Please report any new (or unresolved) problem you might encounter from this new package, so I can address it. Thank you.
Richard

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rerwin
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usb_modeswitch 1.1.8 and database 20110619

#147 Post by rerwin »

I have upgraded the modem-modprobe package with the latest version of the usb_modeswitch function, 1.1.8 and database 20110619, as package version 20110702. While it supports more modems, it also simplifies the task of trying new mode-switching configurations.

Instead of requiring test configurations to be merged into the released database, usb_modeswitch 1.1.8 expects test configurations to be placed into directory /etc/usb_modeswitch.d. The release database now resides in directory /usr/share/usb_modeswitch and should not be modified by users. If a test config requires a new udev rule, that rule should go into /etc/udev/rules.d, so as not to disturb the released rules.

If you already have the 20110623 modem-modprobe package installed, there is no need to replace it if you are not affected by the changes in the new mode switcher. If you need them, I expect to attach here a modeswitch-only package once I get it to also be usable with wary.
Richard

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benny7440
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#148 Post by benny7440 »

:?: I originally posted my situation somewhere else & was advised to post it in here, instead; so I'm doing it now.

I've a VAIO VGN AR250G Notebook - 512 MB RAM - running any of the following linux oss: (1) PL 431 (Live CD, only), (2) PL 511 (installed at sda2), (3) PL 525 (frugal) & (4) Wary 5.* (frugal -I'm using it right now).

Although I've a broad band connection it has been down sometimes, so I want to have a backup comm. syst., just in case (&, besides, I've the right to have one according the ISP's contract).

A couple of days ago I, following a good counsel from tempestuous, downloaded wary 5.* & it's behaving ok. It also detected 'my modem' at: port /dev/tty_SAGS3. This's more than the other puppies combined did in the past.

After clicking the <Test> button it reported: "Sorry, the modem was not detected as ttyS_AGS3". So I read a lot about modems (still need to go to the Wikipedia's page as well as others mentioned in the documentation that comes with "wvdial" but, now I've a confusion about all this:
---> According to my ISP I needed to do this modem detection in windows first for them to be able to set my dialup acct. but I decided to try with linux first; that's why I'm using Wary now; but according to the documentation I must have some info provided by the ISP...
...Which one comes first, Tel # + Login Name + Login PWD (these are provided by the ISP) for making the modem's configuration or I must configure the modem first (somehow)?<---


As you might already see from what I've written above, I need much help due to a lack of understanding of modems communication.

Thanks in advanced for any help that you might provide upon this subject. Below I'm including some useful info:

Code: Select all

# lspci -n
00:00.0 0600: 8086:27a0 (rev 03)
00:01.0 0604: 8086:27a1 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 02)
00:1c.0 0604: 8086:27d0 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 0604: 8086:27d2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 0604: 8086:27d4 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 0604: 8086:27d6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:27c8 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:27c9 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:27ca (rev 02)
00:1d.3 0c03: 8086:27cb (rev 02)
00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:27cc (rev 02)
00:1e.0 0604: 8086:2448 (rev e2)
00:1f.0 0601: 8086:27b9 (rev 02)
00:1f.1 0101: 8086:27df (rev 02)
00:1f.2 0106: 8086:27c5 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 0c05: 8086:27da (rev 02)
01:00.0 0300: 10de:0398 (rev a1)
06:00.0 0280: 8086:4222 (rev 02)
0a:03.0 0607: 104c:8039
0a:03.1 0c00: 104c:803a
0a:03.2 0180: 104c:803b
0a:04.0 0480: 10cf:202a
0a:08.0 0200: 8086:1092 (rev 02)
#
Hope the above helps![/code]

Shep
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#149 Post by Shep »

benny7440 wrote:Although I've a broad band connection it has been down sometimes, so I want to have a backup comm. syst., just in case (&, besides, I've the right to have one according the ISP's contract).
You are speaking of a dialup 56.6 kbits/sec modem here are you?

Are you pressuring your ISP to make their broadband more reliable? :?
Which one comes first, Tel # + Login Name + Login PWD (these are provided by the ISP) for making the modem's configuration
Yes, that.

The ISP will already be providing other users with dialup accounts, so they will have their protocols already determined. All they need to do is tell you their dial-in number, and your account's login name and password. Usually their web site will have a page where you can get the server IPs for their DNS (and the mail servers, if you aren't using web mail).

Wary works well with my external dialup modem.

Some dialup providers used to have a passwordless login account where you could dialin with your modem and give your name, details and credit card number, to setup a dialin account for yourself, but I doubt that they would have that these days for a handful of backup accounts. You're doing this over the phone with a customer service person?

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benny7440
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#150 Post by benny7440 »

Thanks, Shep, for responding!

Yes, I guess the internal modem with this notebook is a 56.6 Kbits/sec analog dialup type of modem, it has 2 ports: ethernet cable & the typical phone line type.

Well, I'm not pressuring my ISP for making the line more reliable. It has been down, AFAIK, just 2 times for almost 2 years (5 days the first time & '1' the other day); I don't think it's a bad service, at lest in my area.

Since they just offer their assistance in working weekdays from 7am-7pm I'll have to wait for calling them again until Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here).

After I launch <Internet Connection Wizard>, Wary detects the internal modem but that's as far as I've gone with it. Apparently, it (I) needs the phone #, login UN & PWD of my ISP to go further in its configuration.
In the meantime, I've remembered that I used to use a sister's dialup acct. many years ago from another ISP; I'm thinking of calling my sister & asking her for the dailing details just to check out the possibilities I'll have with my ISP before Tuesday. I'll keep posting the results of my trials &, if any changes are required by me for making it work, I'll include the details.

Yes, you're right, I've been doing this over the phone & was advised to use a cellular phone when I call them for configuring the acct., since they have to give me certain instructions & the phone line will be busy due to the fact that the computer will be using the modem in the meantime.

Shep
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#151 Post by Shep »

benny7440 wrote:After I launch <Internet Connection Wizard>, Wary detects the internal modem but that's as far as I've gone with it. Apparently, it (I) needs the phone #, login UN & PWD of my ISP to go further in its configuration.
I reckon your ISP's web site would list their dial-up phone number. But you could give it any phone number to dial, just to see whether it will.
Yes, you're right, I've been doing this over the phone & was advised to use a cellular phone when I call them for configuring the acct., since they have to give me certain instructions
They probably expect you to be using windows, and they'll tell you what to click on and where.

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benny7440
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#152 Post by benny7440 »

Thanks for responding, Shep!

I tried to dial my cellular # at the same time I was listening through my other land phone (connected to the same line) for making sure the modem was inserting the required tones but never heard anything.

What I did: Today, after reading your post, I right-clicked the connection icon on the task bar & selected <Disconnect from Network>; launched the Network Connection Wizard & it showed again my modem & the port it's assign to but, after selecting <Probe> in the next screen (or <Connect>, after inserting the 'fake' Tel. #) it says that a modem is not detected.

I did left the ethernet connected at first but later tried it with it disconnected. In both cases it had the same result.

Any advise as how to proceed?

Addendum: I noticed that my memory consumption was getting very high after each trial. Now, after >1 hour later & after playing some online & computer based games, I still see "3" horizontal white lines with the lower "3" sections in red. Something unusual happened also: after every trial I was unable to close the application & had to resort to the 'kill' process (about 5 times in total).

Shep
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#153 Post by Shep »

benny7440 wrote:What I did: Today, after reading your post, I right-clicked the connection icon on the task bar & selected <Disconnect from Network>; launched the Network Connection Wizard & it showed again my modem & the port it's assign to but, after selecting <Probe> in the next screen (or <Connect>, after inserting the 'fake' Tel. #) it says that a modem is not detected.
I can't help much with troubleshooting, sorry. I'm using wireless now. But even though it doesn't automatically detect your modem, isn't there a place you can type in a /dev/tty??? one at a time and try it? (In a console, you to try ls -l /dev/tty* to see what the various devices are.)

EDITED
Something I'll mention now, but you're not in need of this yet: if your phone service does not provide a dial tone (or provides something which is not recognized as a dial tone) then select the no dialtone box, otherwise it will wait futilely for a dial tone before starting to dial. Also, if wvdial finds your ISP's prompt confusing, you'll need to click for "stupid" mode.
Any advise as how to proceed?
Hope someone else can help.
Addendum: I noticed that my memory consumption was getting very high after each trial.
In Wary, the red is not memory usage. The red plot is related to how hard the processor is working, something like that. It should drop back to near zero when you close most apps. The green thing to the left of the red plot is related to your savefile size. Instantaneous RAM usage is not shown as a graphic. You can get it using 'hardinfo'.
Now, after >1 hour later & after playing some online & computer based games, I still see "3" horizontal white lines with the lower "3" sections in red. Something unusual happened also: after every trial I was unable to close the application & had to resort to the 'kill' process (about 5 times in total).
Maybe the games are not well written? Do normal utilities, media player, and the browser, behave properly when you go to close them?
Last edited by Shep on Wed 20 Jul 2011, 02:45, edited 1 time in total.

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benny7440
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#154 Post by benny7440 »

Thanks Shep for responding!

At the end of my last post I'm referring to the wvdial api & not to the games.

I tried the console approach you mention but from the gui, later I went to the process gui & saw many processes that had started earlier, each referring to a different tty# dev. I'm guessing now that not selecting the stupid mode opened a process that never ended (properly, at least) & that was why the cpu was so busy.

Shep
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#155 Post by Shep »

benny7440 wrote:I'm guessing now that not selecting the stupid mode opened a process that never ended
I went back and corrected my post. I should have said uncheck the "dialtone check" box to ignore dialtone. The stupid mode is for difficulty during login, but you are not up to that yet. :( You can see help for these by clicking on wvdial help in the same dialer screen where you see PROBE..

Instead of entering information in the dialer screen, I'm sure you can edit /etc/wvdial.conf

My thoughts are that even if it can't automatically detect the modem, provided you type its location into /etc/wvdial.conf it will use it.

After using dialup for a couple of years with puppy, I have moved to wireless internet, so have forgotten some of the details. But I have kept a copy of my dialup wvdial.conf because I spent a lot of time optimising the modem string for holding a stable connection.
Last edited by Shep on Wed 20 Jul 2011, 12:30, edited 2 times in total.

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benny7440
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#156 Post by benny7440 »

Thanks Shep for the clarification!

Can I do this of configuring dialup while been connected via ethernet?

I fetched for some hardware info inmediately after booting up & I'm posting it below:

>

Code: Select all

-Loaded Modules-

agrserial		: 	Agere Modem Interface driver

	Module Information
		Path			/lib/modules/2.6.32/agrmodem/11c11040/agrserial.ko
		Used Memory		7.29KiB
	Description
		Name			agrserial
		Description		Agere Modem Interface driver
		Version Magic	2.6.32 SMP mod_unload modversions 486
	Copyright
		Author			Agere System Inc (cleanup by ZsoltTech.Com
		License			GPL
		
agrmodem		: Agere Modem Controller driver

	Module Information
		Path			/lib/modules/2.6.32/agrmodem/11c11040/agrserial.ko
		Used Memory		1204.97KiB
	Description
		Name			agrmodem
		Description		Agere Modem Interface driver
		Version Magic	2.6.32 SMP mod_unload modversions 486
	Copyright
		Author			Agere System Inc
		License			GPL
	Dependencies
		usbcore
		snd-hda-codec
		snd 
[/code]

What doesn't make sense is that the system seems to recognize the existence of the modem but the api for configuration of it seems to be unable to recognize the harware. I'll try that that you say above.

tempestuous
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#157 Post by tempestuous »

benny7440 wrote:downloaded wary 5.* & it's behaving ok. It also detected 'my modem' at: port /dev/tty_SAGS3
...
After clicking the <Test> button it reported: "Sorry, the modem was not detected as ttyS_AGS3"
You have made some progress. It appears that the "agrserial" driver has automatically loaded, and has created a device node called /dev/tty_SAGS3

The failure of this device node may simply be due to bad hardware resource allocation. I suggest you boot Wary using the boot parameter "acpi=off". Open /mnt/home/boot/grub/menu.lst in Geany,
and to the end of the line starting with "kernel" add a space plus "acpi=off" (without the quotation marks).
Reboot. Try again, and you might be lucky.

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benny7440
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#158 Post by benny7440 »

Thanks tempestuous for responding!

Today I tried to bootup Wary but never got connected via ethernet as usual & tried PL511 & it also failed; so I resorted to use a live PL511 cd & got connected. After reading email & playing a few web games I rebooted to Wary but after trying every conceivable way of doing it (via dialup modem, ethernet & wireless), never got connected. It appears that something got broken & very broken.

I tried acpi=off & Wary booted up responding very jumpy, even so I continued & tried all what I've said above. No luck for me with dialup connections with linux so far.

Is there something else to try?

Edit: I almost forgot to tell you that even the audio that comes from the speakers is downgraded, so much it sounds as if the cones of the speakers were loose...

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tech_jnke2
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#159 Post by tech_jnke2 »

guys, i've been reading about your problem and if i remember right, it was either linspire or freespire that had the same problem with agere modems in their debian version . they did solve it but i just don't have a copy at hand with the drivers to upload so barry or temp can look at it and figure out what to do.

all i can say is for now , switch out the modem to something else that puppy will support for now, and maybe later the aussie wizards can fix it so those modems can work right.

also i would've suggested to use the newest version of dsl, but that is a major joke. puppy has more going for it than dsl. so i cant tell you what to use to get that quirky modem to work , sry.

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rerwin
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#160 Post by rerwin »

benny7440 & all of you who have been trying to help him,
Sorry to say, I have not been monitoring this thread for a few weeks while obsessed with the new, upcoming Lucid Puppy 526 (which does not handle the Agere modem).

The key symptom, here, is that the modem is not detected by PROBE, which is what counts. Wary went through the right motions to identify the driver and tty... device name, so the right pieces are in place but they seem insufficient. Be aware that the Agere (agr...) support is quite new to puppy, so there may still be some kinks to work out.

The "variant" of the driver (11c11040) indicates it is for "HDA" modems associated with a high-definition-audio sound chipset. The device hardware ID of 8086 27d8 triggered loading of the Agere driver.

As I understand the situation, the Agere driver may or may not be needed. So, let's assume it is not really needed. The module, agrmodem, must be blacklisted, to keep it from loading. However, the BootManager will not help with this, because it does not see the agrmodem driver (a bug that needs investigation). But you can run a command to cause the blacklisting. In a console, enter:

Code: Select all

echo "blacklist agrmodem" > /etc/modprobe.d/agrmodem-blacklist.conf
Then, in pupdial, click CHOOSE and ERASE, etc., exit pupdial and reboot. I expect the modem to be detected as ttySL0. Let's hope that works.

Barry or I may need to create a smoother way to do this, or at least fix the BootManager.
Richard

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