[gentooppc-user] iMac modem config

Why does configuring a modem to work in Gentoo appear
to be such an issue among so many users whatever the
platform?

I have Gentoo installed and running very nicely on a
bondi iMac, except for the modem, which has stumped me
for months. Can anyone please offer up instructions for
configuring the iMac internal modem? I have not been
able to get it to work with either wvdial or kppp.
Various testing shows the modem is recognized on ttyS0,
but my attempts to dial fail due to the device being
"busy". The only clue I have for that is a line which
flashes on startup that says "mox" is using the modem
port. What is mox? This shows up before any info that
can be re-read with dmesg after startup completes and
it appears on the very first screen after yaboot
proceeds to execute instructions to load the kernel.

Thank you *very* much to all who can lend me a hand
with this. If others are experiencing the same
difficulty, I'll gladly write up a mini-howto for the
Tips 'n Tricks forum with the help contributed in
response to this call for help. What with Mac hardware
being so standardized, it should be worthwhile to have
a howto about this topic.