Integration of 3G Wireless Modem Detection - 4.1.2 & 4.2.1

[rerwin]

smokey01,
So we have a "breather" before continuing with the laptop. Your speed seems unusually slow. Unfortunately at the moment, my knowledge is mainly in getting the modem detected and usable by pupdial. I don't have a reason to own a wireless modem, so have no firsthand experience with them. That is why I depend on those with the modems to help me get pupdial to handle them.

My means of working on users' problems is to have them run the pmodemdiag (downloadable) tool to collect the information I need to analyze. I then provide "fixes" for them to try and feed back the results with that tool. We can try that when/if ever you want to go that route.
Richard

[smokey01]

smokey01,


My means of working on users' problems is to have them run the pmodemdiag (downloadable) tool to collect the information I need to analyze. I then provide "fixes" for them to try and feed back the results with that tool. We can try that when/if ever you want to go that route.
Richard

Always happy to help. When I get the laptop back I will run the pmodemdiag tool over it and send you the information.

Grant

[Aitch]

Smokey/Rich

My experience/albeit limited with 3G wireless keys is that they only run at full speed with a very strong aerial signal, so moving close to a window helps, otherwise they switch down to below HS to edge/gsm speeds - or if connecting to a router on wifi, moving the aerials closer/making cooking foil parabolic reflectors helps to boost signals

I have posted links to aerial boosted wifi keys on ebay, but I'm not aware of any for HSDPA/3G

HTH

Aitch

[smokey01]

Aitch, thanks for the hint. I think I remember reading somewhere that if reception is not good one should use the supplied USB cable between the dongle and USB port as it acts like an aerial. I might tell my son to give that a try and see if the speed improves.

Thanks

[richard.a]

Has anyone else manage to connect to Optus Broadband?

Thanks

I'm trying slowly

Trying to fit it around everything else I do in my 30-hour days, 8-day weeks

BTW what is the pmodemdiag tool? Is this a puppy thing? Or a wireless thing? And is it in a repository somewhere?

And thankyou folks for your sterling work here. The support team at Internode are waiting, chewing fingernails to hear. They are now aware of a couple of these threads, starting with the one I opened.

Let you know if I get anywhere.

I have got the Gnome version 2009.2 of PCLinuxOS almost working with the 3G dongle Sadly I don't understand it or wireless well enough to push it over the edge and complete the handshake it seems to start.

I'm in Adelaide, the home of many many wifi hotspots - which is giving me a little more understanding of the vagaries of wireless. But, in the words of Sergeant Schultz "I know nuthing" lol

Portable equipment:
Toshiba Satellite 1800, native XP SP2, now on a 40Gb HDD and three other systems to compare... and an older one (2140) with a 30Gb HDD now with several systems but I can't do a comparison because it no longer has windows on it - because the 3G currently doesn't work except on Windows.

AspireOne AOA150-Bw with 6cell battery (decent life) 120Gb HDD, native XPsp3 (3G works well by default even though there is regular wireless) with puppy 4.21 and 4.3 as well as LinpusLite. The 3G only works on Windows.

A bunch of older and more recent desktops and towers with various Linuxes (mostly Puppies) all waiting to be checked...

Another Richard

[rerwin]

richard.a,

BTW what is the pmodemdiag tool? Is this a puppy thing? Or a wireless thing? And is it in a repository somewhere?

It is a tool I wrote to compensate for the fact that I cannot test the wireless modems myself, to debug my 3G-wireless effort and other dialup-modem problems. It pertains only to puppy and its modem support implementation.

It is available in the package manager's puppy4 repo under utilities. But that version is incomplete. My latest version is in another thread to help with a problem. Eventually I will post it at the start of this thread and for inclusion in 4.4. It is still evolving.

It collects all the files and information I need to understand what the user is experiencing and why. The newest version is here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=23553
but that can change. I have just added to it, so it may be buggy. The older versions install to the /root directory and are invoked by ./pmodemdiag. But the newest installs to /usr/sbin and is invoked without the initial "./".
Richard(.e)

[zygo]

rerwin,

your e1550 action in 51-usb_modeswitch-option-0x12d1-0x1446.rules refers to /usr/sbin/pusb_modeswitch.sh. This is not in Puppy 431. Should the filename start with p? Should I install something first that includes the p version? I lost track of which of your works made it into the official release. With the p removed it works.

There would appear to be 2 switch messages -- one in the usb_modeswitch.conf that you used and another one on the forum (dated about 12 July) which also works.

[rerwin]

zygo,
Thanks for pointing out the "p" problem. For my next update to 431 I will be changing the name of the script, to add the "p". This is necessary because the developer of usb_modeswitch has now added a script of the same name as I have been using, so I need to differentiate puppy's, to avoid confusion. I do not plan to use the new script because it requires supporting programs that puppy does not include. It is part of an extended automatic detection scheme that is not fully implemented (and crashed when I tried it). But I will see what I can learn from it for maintaining our puppy method of running the mode-switcher.

So, removing the "p" from the rule is OK for your instance, but the more generic fix is to change the script name to add the "p" (/usr/sbin/pusb_modeswitch.sh)). That way, all of the rules will work. I neglected to make that change in the dotpet. I have now updated the download to include the rename of the script, so others will be OK.
Richard

[swiatmar]

Hello!!
I have some problem after installing3g on my puppy. I am missing following things:
lsusb
and comgt.
I was searching in the forum but can't find anything. I found only this:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/comgt/
can somebody help me:)
thanks:)

[rerwin]

swiatmar,
Welcome. This thread is for my project to get puppy to use 3G modems automatically, so the user need not be concerned about lsusb, comgt, and all the other ways people attempt to get their modem to work.

Puppy does not have those two commands. But I can help you to make your modem work with the puppy dialup modem function, if you would give me more information about your setup. Since puppy 4.3.1 contains the latest version of 3G support, please use that puppy (but not the 2.6.21 or 2.6.25 alternatives).

The simplest way to collect all the relevant information is to install the pmodemdiag tool using this direct download link: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=22470
and rebooting 4.3.1, then attempting to set up the dialup option and using pupdial to connect. When you have gone as far as you can, run the tool. To run, in a console type: ./pmodemdiag, Then find the pmodemdiag-20....tar.gz in /root and attach it for analysis.

However, if your modem "just works" when you boot up in 4.3.1, no need to send a diagnostic file. Anyway, could you tell me which modem you are using? And what Puppy does about it? Thanks.
Richard

[starbright]

Hi, I hope you can help.
First off, I love Puppy, It's as fast as can be. Specially compared to my poor bloated XP machine.
I might put it out of it's misery as soon as I get my Internet set up, but I do love the lumbering old thing so.
I have managed to connect to the internet before with my Puppy Linux machine (permanently on the hard drive and booting with grub) and an E220, but now I'm using my new Huawei E1550 and it won't play ball.
PupDial claims to read a modem configuration file on startup and then says GOOD! Modem Selected!
When I probe it sticks with this story.
When I press the test button it suddenly says "What modem, I don't see any modem, or words to that effect.
When I press connect to internet it says-
Cannot open /dev/ttyUSBO: No such device or address.
My guess is it isn't switching. And to be fair it refused to switch on my Windows machine too! Even after I ran the install files on the USB.
I don't think it's broken though because it worked nice as pie with my girlfriend's Mac.
I'm upoloading the file that your diagnostic file generated.
I hope you can help.

[rerwin]

starbright,
Welcome to this thread. To get your modem working, you will need to download and install the rules dotpet I posted here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 016#361016

Then you need to edit one of the rules files, because your modem's hardware ID is ambiguous to Puppy. The file is: /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usb_modeswitch-option-0x12d1-0x1446.rules

Edit line 29 to remove the initial "#" from "#SUBSYSTEM==", to activate that rule. The entry should look like this:

Code: Select all

########################################################
# Huawei E1550

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1446", ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch.sh -v 0x%s{idVendor} -p 0x%s{idProduct} -V 0x12d1 -P 0x1001 -M '55534243123456780000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000'"

Then reboot as you did when you took the diag snapshot.

BTW, You can avoid having to compress/archive the /tmp/pmodemdiag... directory by merely attaching the pmodemdiag...tar.gz file that appears in your home/root directory. The tool makes it easy to send the data.

[starbright]

Hi Rerwin,

Thanks for your help.
I downloaded the .pet and removed the # as you suggested, and rebooted.
It's still saying no modem detected, but the modem has disappeared from the desktop as a cd drive icon and the error message I get when I probe has changed to something like inapropriate icor for your device, or something like that.
I think that means there was progress?

I rebooted and I ran a new diagnostic.
Have you any more ideas on why this contrary little beast still won't talk to the interweb?

Thanx

[zygo]

starbright
I have experienced something similar to what you describe. Pupdial seems to have problems with multiple modems. I think I fixed this by opening the pc case and removing my one other modem. I don't usually use that pc though.

swiatmar
Instead of lsusb use the USB section of pupscan from the menu. Straight after plugging in the dongle start pupscan, click USB and note the last device manufacturer, vendor and product. Wait 61 seconds. Close pupscan. Start pupscan and click USB. Has the bottom item changed?

UPDATE

Hardinfo is much easier than pupscan to use for witnessing the 3g dongle switching before attempting to dial. If switching doesn't happen just unplug and replug the dongle.

[rerwin]

starbright,
Thanks for your latest data. I conclude that the mode switcher succeeds in detaching the storage unit, but that the device is not being told to switch into modem mode. This may be because it requires the usb-storage driver to do that. But that driver is not shown to support your device -- yet. Later kernels probably support it.

In the past, technosaurus has built later versions of the usb-storage driver, to add new devices. Since he is preoccupied with the puppy 4.4CE project, I have asked him about my doing that. So, we'll see where that goes.

zygo,

Pupdial seems to have problems with multiple modems

My intent is that PupDial should handle multiple modems, at least of different types. In general, USB modems should get detected before any PCI or built-in modems. If a PCI modem is selected even though a USB modem is plugged in at boot-up, the initialization script for the USB modem is probably not waiting long enough for the driver to get loaded. The scripts decide based on what modem drivers are actually loaded when the scripts run during system initialization.

I am currently addressing this issue with DGC, ACM and HSO scripts. The script for the Option driver (ttyUSB0), used by most wireless modems, already waits, although maybe not long enough.

The simplest way to remove any possibility of interference is to blacklist the unwanted driver module: hsfmc97via, in starbrite's case. Actually, starbrite, you should blacklist it anyway because the log shows that the hsf driver is inappropriate for your modem. The internal modem should be detected as ttySL0 if you leave the USB modem unplugged at bootup -- after erasing the ttyUSB0 or ttySHSF0 detection. However, be aware that I have found a problem with internal-modem (ALSA-based) detection, in the main (k2.6.30.5) versions of puppy 4.3.1. I expect to post the fix soon, but tell me if you need it now.
Richard

[starbright]

Don't stop working on other important projects over this. I have another modem I can use for a while.
Thanks for all your help.

Really a lot of work obviously goes into this project. Thanks!!

[pavl]

dear all,

being rather new to puppy linux (it is great!), I just cannot get the t-mobile card to work. It is not seen by dialup. I also have the stick, but this is alsno not seen.

I installed all the pets Rerwin has put online, but to no avail.

Could somebody please help. I attach the file rerwin asks for.

Oh and I use puppy 4.3.1

thanks in advance,

Paul

[Ghostryder4u]

Gm all I came back here a few days ago and dl puppy with the help of unetbootin. using it on a toshiba satellite now according to puppy and the bb dongles it has got the k3565 to work and also the e160 however a few odd messages with the e160 along the lines of "not sure what to do" which confused the hell out of me. Used the settings for the k3565 to connect but seamonkey is not opening any webpage. there is a program (forgotten the name) which sits at the bootom right which tells me I am sending and recieving data its just not connecting to web pages.

Rerwin congrats to you all for getting puppy too locate and use the usb modems.

Need your help guys on this as fed up using xubuntu really causing huge probs now.
Also guys have found those small netbooks on ebay for under a hundred which have a 300mhz processor and 128mb ram? I elieve puppy would work well on those liitle netbooks but I admit I am no expert but what do you guys think as your all professionals.?

[Peterm321]

starbright,

Thanks for your latest data. I conclude that the mode switcher succeeds in detaching the storage unit, but that the device is not being told to switch into modem mode. This may be because it requires the usb-storage driver to do that. But that driver is not shown to support your device -- yet. Later kernels probably support it.

I had the same problem myself, and seemed to have done something to finally link my modem, huawei E1550 to the internet, otherwise I would not be posting this message. And I don't remember all what I did to connect so I may not be able to reconnect at next boot.

I couldn't see how the rules file linked in to the boot sequence and perhaps this version of Puppy is not as sophisticated as the larger versions, my version being TurboPup, Kernel 2.6.25.16.

However the rules file seemed to call up the modeswitch program, so I took the code from it and created this short script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#
# SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1446", ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1",
# ACTION=="add", RUN+="
#
/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch -W -v 0x12d1 -p 0x1446 -V 0x12d1 -P 0x1001 -M '55534243123456780000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000'

The modeswitch still did not seem to work, so I called up further dialogs and tried them and tried on the command line the commands:

modprobe usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1446

then later

modprobe option

I fount that the Menu -->Network -->PGPRS Connect then threw up a lot of text and I found the Internet online

HTH

Peter.

[zygo]

Ghostryder4u,

pupdial (wvdial) waits a while for a login prompt. When it doesn't get it or when the login fails it says "not sure what to do starting ppp (ie the connection) and hoping for the best" or words to that effect. 3g often has no need for login so that is not a problem -- the connection stays up.

The thing that starts in the bottom of the screen when you have a connection is called blinky. When blinky's started and you can't get a webpage to display then execute this in an rxvt window (copy the line and press the middle mouse button over the rxvt window then press enter)

cat /etc/resolve.conf

if you do not see lines that begin with nameserver then you have no DNS. Execute this

echo "nameserver 208.67.222.222" > /etc/resolve.conf

and this
echo "nameserver 208.67.220.220" >> /etc/resolve.conf

These commands set up a free DNS service. DNS is usually provided by the ISP but for one reason or another it doesn't seem to get set up automatically every time with 3g for me. You need DNS so that the browser can find the internet number for the address you've asked it to display. Disconnecting pupdial and reconnecting sometimes fixes DNS. (There needs to be a better solution I know.)

UPDATE

And here it is. Thanks to GuestToo for creating AltDNS last updated on 09 Dec 2009 by Wolf Pup http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=28177 .