Problem 3G and networkmanager

[lauren]

Hi!
Trying Helena RC1 I have some problems which I never had with centOS 5.4, openSUSE 11.2, Intrepid and Fedora Leonidas, but also with Karmic and Fedora 12, it seems to be a bug (reported in Ubuntu, but not solved) , the networkmanager 0.7.996 does not work as it should be. First, NWM did not recognice my USBmodem, I had to plug several times, then connection established was printed, but no internet. After editing /etc/resolv.conf and changing some details in NWM, I had access. It is no fun! I suppose neither Ubuntu nor Mint will clear this problem in the next weeks, because more than 6 bugs were reported concerning 3G since Karmic Beta.
lauren

[viking777]

You need the -15 kernel to get mobile broadband modems to work properly.

[lauren]

Hi!
My Karmic has kernel 2.6.31.14 and -15, there is no big difference between both of them - the modem does not work correctly.
By the way, with knoppix and PartedMagic (Live-CDs) the modem works well!
The problem could be the networkmanager - there is no problem with older versions, only with 0.7.996!
CentOS, kernel 2.6.18 and nwm 0.7.0: no problem.
lauren

[viking777]

Have you got usb-modeswitch installed and configured?

Mint probably isn't going to work without it. It actually depends what sort of modem you have, if it is a Huawei then it stands a chance of working, a ZTE stands no chance at all (without modeswitch). I don't have any other types so I can't comment.

[lauren]

Hi!
My modem is a huawei 220, and I never had serios problems with it - it worked with Gnome and only with Mandriva 2009/ KDE (not 2010!).
It is strange that it does not work correctly with the new releases- acccept centOS and openSUSE!
It worked without installing a program, so I never heard of usb-modeswitch; could you please give me a few details?
lauren

[viking777]

Just search the forum lauren, I, and others, have made stacks of posts on this subject, I am not going to write them all again, sorry.

[daka]

Hi

Ubuntu Karmic is messed up with Network Manager... if you check the ubuntu forum you will see that thousands of people have no working internet connection with 3G modems. Supposedly the ".15" kernel 'proposed' update solves the problem, but not for me. I am downloading 'Helena' and hope that the Mint forum finds some quick solutions. Mandriva and Suse and other distros work fine with the 3G modems.

Daka

[viking777]

Well, you may have thousands of people that don't have connections out there, but you have one person here that didn't have a connection but now does - that is me.
At the risk of sounding like a worn out record and wearing out the same keys on my keyboard, I will repeat what I have said before many times over.

You need the -15 kernel (something not right with the previous one) you need usb-modeswitch installed and CONFIGURED. Which is what most people don't seem to be doing. Just installing it is not enough.

The instructions on configuring it for one type of modem are here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=36248#p209495

The principle is the same for all other types of supported modem, just select the section for the modem you own - it is really not difficult, even I can do it!

If you have already tried that and it didn't work the I am sorry I can't help you further. If you haven't tried it then do so because it just might work as it did for me.

[dacha]

Hi!
My modem is a huawei 220, and I never had serios problems with it - it worked with Gnome and only with Mandriva 2009/ KDE (not 2010!).
It is strange that it does not work correctly with the new releases- acccept centOS and openSUSE!
It worked without installing a program, so I never heard of usb-modeswitch; could you please give me a few details?
lauren

The Huawei E220 is really bad news: even a 2.6.31-15 kernel doesn't get it working on Ubuntu, and from what I've seen it always crashes a few seconds after being plugged in, making even usb-modeswitch useless. To top it off, on my PC the entire USB bus crashes when the E220 does, needing a complete reboot to get any USB device working again.

I managed to get my E220 working as follows:

Cold boot with the E220 unplugged.
sudo killall devkit-disks-daemon
sudo killall devkit-power-daemon
Plug in the E220 and wait a while.
Click on the NetworkManager tray icon, then set up and/or dial your connection in there.
If you connect but have no DNS, either disconnect and reconnect until you do, or manually set DNS up.

[lauren]

Hi!
1. No difference between kernel -14 and -15.
2. How is it, that even PartedMagc and Knoppix connect the Huawei 220 within some seconds and without any program?
3. Concerning the networkmanager: 6 - 8 months ago, there was a bug: you could not enter your PUK, because you only could put in 4 (!) digits; every teenager knows that a PUK has more than 4 digits. Without Windows the problem could not be solved! The bug was reported, but I don't know if it is fixed. Networkmanager 0.7.966 is a big problem; distributions using an older version connect without problem. I don't think that the new problem will be solved soon.
5. Why should someone use a distribution where it takes some minutes and tricks ore other programs to connect? I repeat: In CentOS and openSUSE you don't need to install a program, no installation of a modem - one click and you are connected and - that is important: next time, after booting - the connection is stable and again only one click is necessary!
lauren

[viking777]

lauren, dacha,

I happen to have a Huawei E220 about the house, so I took the sim card from my K3565 put it into the E220 and tried it out. I can only say that you are both absolutely right, as I could in no way get it to a usable state. In my case the modem is constantly being switched back and forth from a 'modem' state to a 'storage' state and back again endlessly, making it unusable. Strange thing is though that on Mint 7 this did not happen and I could use it normally. I would like to have an explanation for you, but I don't. The obvious answer is that this is a kernel regression, but as you say there are distros out there using up to date kernels where it works, so that explanation is doubtful as well. I can't explain it, but usb-modeswitch does not help it at all.

[mall842]

I have this same problem. how did you get yours working ?

[viking777]

I have this same problem. how did you get yours working ?

I didn't, I use a Huawei K3565 and a ZTE622 which do work (after a lot of fiddling with usb-modeswitch).

[gogogadget]

I have the same issue, with my A1 Austria E220 modem. In Mint 7 it worked flawlessly in Mint 8 it doesn't work (neither in ubuntu 9.10). Please update your iso with a working version. I'm afraid Ubuntu will not update their iso until next year. Thanks

[mall842]

cool cheers for the answer to my question it helps a lot. so the new year. you think they would tell people this when they release it. there is a lot of people using these modems and when i put up my question they wouldnt answer it.

thanks guys so much for telling me this it was a great help. if they want people to make the switch to linux to windows they should let people know this.

[lauren]

Hi!
Good news: After installing Helena 64 bit / KDE a new connection was displayed and within one minute my Huawei-modem E220 connected to the internet - I only had to choose country, provider, default for bill.
lauren