Installing Ltmodem driver for Mandriva
Getting the "ltserial" modem to work was relatively easy.
Going through the Mandriva Control Center wizard with Mandriva 2006, the modem was recognized, but it expects me to install a "ltmodem-kernel" package from an external source.
Since this package wasn't found, I was not able to complete the wizard and manage the modem through through the Mandriva Control Center. It can work fine despite this.
There's a thread at LinuxQuestions.org with details. The ALK packages they reference are here.
After rebooting, /dev/modem may disappear. One solution to that is referencing /dev/ttyLTM0 directly for the modem device, instead of trying to figure how to keep that symbolic link intact.
The modem is [http://www.richmondcomputes.org/connecting_to_aol_with_linux confirmed
to work] with penggy, an AOL dialer.