Kppp cannot open modem lock file (but does in root)

As the title says, having some problems with KPPP.

just formated my suse 11.1 machine (screwed it up farther then my skills can fix) and it worked before…but not now.

im getting modem lock errors as the regular user, but su kppp in terminal does the trick.

what do i need to change to allow the regular user to access the modem?