Gobi Broadband Modems
This is a short tutorial on connecting to the internet using your gobi modem.
Device identification
Install usbutils and then examine the output of
$ lsusb
which will show the vendor and product IDs of the device.
For example, my HP un2430 modem:
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 03f0:371d Hewlett-Packard
As of linux-3.1.1-1 the device is detected by the qcserial module, if not, you are going to have to recompile the qcserial module with your added product and vendor id.
Alternatively you can add the Product and Vendor ID by writing them into the new_id file (best both at the same time because most Gobi modules switch the Product ID when the Firmware is loaded). Here the Shell Commands i had to use (in a root shell, sudo does not work in this case for some reason): my integrated Gobi2K has the Vendor ID 04da and the Product IDs 250e (waiting for Firmware) and 250f (firmware loaded)
echo "04da 250e" > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/qcserial/new_id echo "04da 250f" > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/qcserial/new_id
note that this has to be repeated when you reload the qcserial module or reboot/shutdown.
gobi_loader
"gobi_loader is a firmware loader for Qualcomm Gobi USB chipsets. These devices appear in an uninitialised state when power is applied and require firmware to be loaded before they can be used as modems. gobi_loader adds a udev rule that will trigger loading of the firmware and make the modem usable." (https://github.com/kicer/gobi_loader)
Install gobi-loaderAUR and gobi-firmwareAUR from AUR.
After installation, you should enter your product and vendor id in the /lib/udev/rules.d/60-gobi.rules
Then a simple reload of the qcserial module:
# rmmod qcserial # modprobe qcserial
Manage Connection in Network Manager
ModemManager is required for network manager to detect any mobile broadband devices.
This needs to be enabled with systemctl start ModemManager and systemctl enable ModemManager. As soon as they are started the Mobile Broadband option will be available from the Network Manager Applet.
Make sure mobile-broadband-provider-info and nm-connection-editor are installed.
To use this quite old modem, you need to blacklist qmi_wwan and cdc_wdm modules from loading into [modern] Linux kernel. Else, if these modules are loaded, ModemManager recognizes this modem as something new with QMI interface, and then complains about too small versions of some QMI services. Source
Connection
wvdial
See main article: wvdial
The general procedure is to switch the device into modem mode, make sure the ttyUSB device(s) are recognized by the qcserial kernel module, and then to run wvdial to dial, connect and start pppd.
Install wvdial. The configuration file /etc/wvdial.conf will in general depend on (a) which device you have (b) which mobile network you are connecting to. A single wvdial.conf file can be defined with named sections to be usable with several USB modems and networks, should you need them.
Run:
# wvdialconf
which will attempt to write /etc/wvdial.conf correctly. You will need to add the user, password and Access Point Name (APN). You can obtain these (i) from your network provider,
(ii) from other users via published wvdial.confs, or (iii) by logging the USB tty traffic under another operating system (Sysinternals' Portmon).
My /etc/wvdial.conf looks like this:
[Dialer status] Init1 = AT+CPIN? Init2 = ATI Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1 [Dialer pin] Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1 Init1 = AT+CPIN=1234 [Dialer wwan] Init1 = ATZ Init2 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","data.apn.com" Stupid Mode = yes Phone = *99***1# New PPPD = yes Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1 Username = XXXXXX Dial Command = ATDT Password = XXXXXX Baud = 460800
To simplify the procedure, I took my SIM card out and disabled the PIN so I do not have to run "wvdial pin" before connecting to the internet.
Often there will be several devices (at /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyUSB1, /dev/ttyUSB2 for example). If in doubt about which to use, try each of them in turn. Once the configuration files are prepared, the internet connection is established by running
$ wvdial <section>
The final wvdial command should start pppd and the obained IP address should be visible in the terminal output. At that point the internet connection should be live, which can be easily checked with a web browser or by pinging an external IP address.