Newbie Modem configuration question

[StillWaters18]

Hi all,

My apologies if this is the wrong forum for tihs question, but I couldn't see anythnig more specific.
I have recently installed Fedora 7 of My DEl Inspiron 6400 (aka E1505). I have a Huawei E220 USB Modem, but I have to admit to having no idea how to use any Modem under Linux.
From my research on this Forum and elsewhere (from my Windows Vista partition!) I have determined that I at least have a kernel which works with this device (it's not identified as a USB drive when I plug it into the machine) but I am unsure how to procede. My questions are:

Which should I use: ppp or wvdial? Why?

How can I identify the modem device? (I'm presuming I need this information in order to use either of the above programs)

What should I do to establish a connection?

Can I configure the modem lights application to use this modem? Is so, what should I be using for the "lock file"?

Thanks,
/M

[markkuk]

Is it a real modem (an USB ACM device) or a Winmodem (a sound card with phone line I/O)? If it's a Winmodem, then it's not likely to work at all. If it's a real modem, you should see the device name by looking at the output from dmesg command after plugging in the device.

[StillWaters18]

It's the real deal. I should have explained, it's a mobile modem that connects to a "3" account via 3G mobile (HSDPA) technology. Theoretically it could give up to 3MBps, although I should think I would want to be beside a base station at 4:00 hrs in the morning in good weather to even approach that sort of throughput...

[markkuk]

OK, plug it in, wait a moment, then run "dmesg" from the command line to see what Fedora thinks about your modem.

[PabloTwo]

And in case you might have missed any of the threads on this forum concerning your modem, here's a list of four that my search turned up.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...e220+usb+modem
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...e220+usb+modem
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...e220+usb+modem
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...e220+usb+modem

If you haven't already read some of these, maybe (?) there will be some clues to assist you there. From what I make of it, the recurring theme seems to stem from the fact that this modem is not just a modem, but also a usb storage device, which can confuse Fedora as to just what it's looking at. My apologies for not being able to offer more specific help on this particular device.

Good luck,
Paul

[StillWaters18]

OK, will give dmesg a try tonight (haven't brought laptop to work) and see what I get...

[StillWaters18]

First of all, thanks for your help. I can at leat identify the device now (I think!). I tried dmesg command,and at the very bottom of the output I see the following:

PHP Code:

usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb-storage: device ignored
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for generic
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for GSM modem (1-port)
option 2-1:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbcore: registered new interface driver option
drivers/usb/serial/option.c: USB Driver for GSM modems: v0.7.1 


This leads me back to more questions. though...

I would interpret this to mean that my device has been recognized as a modem attached to ttyUSB0. So what do I do now with this information?
Having searched a bit on t'Net I have found .conf files which porport to be for my device, but I am unsure whether I need them at all, where, if I do need them, I should put them, and what I should do next to establish a connection.

One of the posts PabloTwo mentions (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...e220+usb+modem) mentions a network-manager application. If I use this, can I skip using the .conf files.

Maybe it's enough to go:

PHP Code:

wvdial ttyUSB0 


Surely that's waaay too simple...

[PabloTwo]

Network Manager will make it easy to setup your modem and ISP account, provided you've gotten past the hurdle of your system recognizing the modem device, which it looks like it has. You'll need to be root to use Network Manager.

In GUI mode: System>Administration>Network
From a command terminal: system-config-network

The first tab in that app is Devices. If a 'modem' device is not already listed there, select New from the menu directly above the Devices tab, and select 'modem connection' from the list. Now click on the Hardware tab. Highlight the modem device entry and then click on Edit. In the 'Modem device:' box, enter /dev/ttyUSB0 (or whichever /dev/ttyxxxxx is appropriate). Leave Baud rate and Flow control at their defaults and insure that the 'use touch-tone dialing' box is checked.

When done there, go back to the Devices tab, highlight your modem entry and click on Edit. In the dialog box that comes up, you can setup your ISP account particulars. Also check the box next to the modem entry so it's included in your bootup profile of network devices. Somewhere in the configuration options, you can set it so it doesn't try to dialup automatically when you bootup, which lets you bring it up later, when you want. And again somewhere in the configuration, check the allow users thing so you won't have to be root to bring it up.

Now, get behind your blast shield and, with the modem entry highlighted, click the Activate button. If all is well, it'll come to life and dialup your ISP. If not, there's more work to be done. If it does work after this. You have several options on how to dialup/hangup at your command. I personally like the little gnome panel applet 'Modem Lights'. It's simple, fast and gives you some indications of what's happening with your modem while online. From a command terminal, use the commands ifup ppp0 and ifdown ppp0, to dialup or hangup, respectively.

I hope this helps.

Edit: Oh... almost forgot. And if you can use this above, yes, you can skip the .conf file.
Paul

[StillWaters18]

That's a great help, thanks! I'll spend my weekend playing around with this... will report back!

[StillWaters18]

Well, it's taken me a lot longer than a weekend (been very busy with other things) but I have to admit not making much progress at the moment. Eventually tried wvdial with a configuration file tailored to my ISP (Three Ireland USB Modem HOWTO. My system doesn't seem to like it, though, it doesn't seem to respond to the modem commands, because what I see is

PHP Code:

 wvdial --config /etc/wvdial.conf
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
--> Sending: ATQ0
--> Re-Sending: ATZ
--> Modem not responding. 


[PabloTwo]

Hi again-

Hopefully someone with more experience/knowledge on this subject will step in and offer more constructive advice than I'm able to give you right now (I'm by no means an expert here). But the problem seems to remain that the dialer is not finding/using the right /dev/ttyxxxxx for your USB modem. I'm assuming that you tried the Network Configuration Manager (System>Administration>Network) from GUI or system-config-network from CLI and got no good results there.

I have read some about using wvdial directly but have never had a need to do so, as the network manager modem setup takes care of that. Here's a listing from my /var/log/messages file after I dialup.

Sep 7 08:27:46 speedie ifup-ppp: pppd started for AtlanticNet on /dev/ttyS0 at 115200
Sep 7 08:27:47 speedie kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Sep 7 08:27:47 speedie pppd[3134]: pppd 2.4.4 started by root, uid 0
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Initializing modem.
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Sending: ATZ
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: ATZ
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: OK
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: OK
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Sending: ATM1L1
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: ATM1L1
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: OK
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Modem initialized.
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Sending: ATDT469-2110
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: Waiting for carrier.
Sep 7 08:27:48 speedie wvdial[3163]: ATDT469-2110
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: CONNECT 26400/ARQ/V34/LAPM/V42BIS
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: CC
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: daytona-as-1
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: User Access Verification
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: Login:
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie wvdial[3163]: Carrier detected. Chatmode finished.
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie pppd[3134]: Serial connection established.
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie pppd[3134]: Using interface ppp0
Sep 7 08:28:29 speedie pppd[3134]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Sep 7 08:28:33 speedie pppd[3134]: PAP authentication succeeded
Sep 7 08:28:33 speedie kernel: PPP Deflate Compression module registered
Sep 7 08:28:34 speedie pppd[3134]: local IP address 209.208.117.20
Sep 7 08:28:34 speedie pppd[3134]: remote IP address 209.208.81.226
Sep 7 08:28:34 speedie pppd[3134]: primary DNS address 209.208.25.18
Sep 7 08:28:34 speedie pppd[3134]: secondary DNS address 209.208.42.132

As you can see, wvdial is called into action, without me ever having to mess with wvdial directly. Right after you attempt to dial out, you might want to try the command, tail -30 /var/log/messages and have a look to see what error messages are posted, perhaps giving you/someone a clue what/where to fix it.

edit: also try /sbin/lsusb and have a look at what your usb modem lists as there. Add the -v option to that command if you want a more verbose listing. Another thing to look at: cat /proc/bus/usb/devices. Maybe a clue there? I was also reminded, looking at your original post on this thread, that your using a laptop, not a desktop. Is the E220 powered by a separate power block, plugged into an AC outlet, or does it get it's power exclusively from the +5VDC on the USB connection? If it's powered only from USB, maybe the laptop doesn't have enough umph to make the E220 work properly. Just a thought.

Paul

[StillWaters18]

UPDATE: finally discovered that it will work if I boot with the device in place rather than booting first and then plugging it in. While this seems wierd, I'm not complaining - at least it's now operational! Thanks for all your help with it - I can now tackle any remaining usability issues on a piece-by piece basis!
/M

[PabloTwo]

Not weird at all. In the bootup process, the HALD (Hardware Abstraction Layer Dameon) searches for all hardware, existing or new, and then attempts to setup all neccessary support for those devices. That's just HAL doing his job. Glad you found the solution.

Paul