Mobile broadband works with LMDE, but not with Mint 13

[anayonkars]

Hi All,

I know that this issue might have occurred quite a few times with other users, and I tried to search for it, but all I found was users whose internet was not working even with other distros.

Problem:
Wireless modem is not detected in Linux Mint 13 and Ubuntu 12.04, however, it works fine with LMDE, Ubuntu 11.10, Mint 11 etc.

Details:
I tried even installing Ubuntu 12.04, and Mint 13, but of no use. The modem does not work either in live-cd mode and after actual installation. However, it is detected and I'm able to connect to internet even in live mode when using LMDE, Mint 11 (I haven't tried it with Mint 12) and Ubuntu 11.10.

Modem details:
Huawei EC152

Partial lsusb output:
When working(LMDE, Ubuntu 11.10):
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 12d1:140b Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. EC1260 Wireless Data Modem HSD USB Card
When not working(Mint 13, Ubuntu 12.04):
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 12d1:1446 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E1552/E1800 (HSPA modem)

Thus, in LTS distros (Mint 13, Ubuntu 12.04), modem is not detected as data card, but simply as a modem, and hence, I'm not able to set up network via network manager.

Currently, I'm using LMDE,and this issue occurred there too. Modem used to get detected as simply HSPA modem (instead of data card), but the issue used to get fixed when unplugging and re-plugging the modem. However, the issue went away completely when I updated to LMDE SP4.

I'm quite disappointed to see why these 'LST' distros have this issue (i.e. modem not working out of box). I was planning to ditch LMDE for Mint 13 (one reason is because updates on LMDE are quite slow), but this is the only problem which is holding me back.

Any suggestions to make it working would be helpful.

Many Thanks.

[viking777]

I am not running LMDE, but I am running debian testing which is not dissimilar. Looking at Debian testing and comparing to Mint13, I find that two of the components on Mint13 connected to mobile broadband functionality are older (by some months) than the same components on debian.

What I suggest you do is to first remove these two components with the package manager on Mint13 and then replace them with the newer component and see if your modem now works.

You will find downloads of the newer components here:

http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/usb-modeswitch-data

and here:

http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/mobil ... vider-info

The first of these is the more important of the two.

If that doesn't work simply remove the new packages and revert back to the old ones and nothing has been lost.

I haven't done this myself so I don't know if you will run into any dependency problems, but since these packages have very few dependencies anyway I think it is unlikely that will happen.

[anayonkars]

Hello viking777,

Thanks a lot. I had to tried some combinations, and surprisingly, only updating mobile-broadband-provider-info worked (even without updating usb-modeswitch or usb-modeswitch-data).

However, I'm quite confused with this - because the version I had with LMDE was from March 2012 - it worked. The version with Linux Mint 13 is from May 2012 - which had issues during detection of modem. And the version you've provided is from July 2012 - which again works.

On Ubuntu, my modem simply started working when I plugged and unplugged it 2-3 times - actually I never did that (which I should've done quite ago).

Thanks for help again!

[oobetimer]

On Ubuntu, my modem simply started working when I plugged and unplugged it 2-3 times - actually I never did that (which I should've done quite ago).

You can make a script or run via terminal the next commands, so unplugging is not required.

#! /bin/sh
sudo service modemmanager restart && sudo service udev restart

Make the script executable (chmod +x script.sh)

[anayonkars]

Hello oobetimer,

Thanks a lot for this suggestion.

[Teaker1s]

sounds like a usb switch issue, modems with micro sd mount as sd cards not modems by default.

If you can see the removable drive part of the modem mounting-try right clicking and ejecting it-the modem may then appear

[wedyylaa]

What cellphone carriers use HSPA networks? I'm looking to buy a new phone, and I'm with Telus. Telus only uses HSPA networks, so I would need to buy a phone that also uses that network. I'd like a list of all the carriers that use that network so I don't buy the wrong kind of phone.
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