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Re: [LUG] 3G USB Modem

 

On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 21:05 +0100, Gordon Henderson wrote:
On Mon, 18 Apr 2011, Joe Buckle wrote:

> Yesterday I decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my mum's HP Pavillion
> laptop (woohoo she's gone linux). Unfortunately, she uses a 3G USB
> Dongle device to connect to the internet. Installed Ubuntu, but I
> couldn't connect to the internet with her dongle. I found myself a bit
> stuck because that was the only access to the internet. So I laptop
> away. Eventually, I have got this sorted by installing USB ModeSwitch
> which obviously I couldn't install without the internet whilst at my
> mum's.
>
> The purpose of this thread is to try and establish whether it would have
> been possible to get the dongle to work without having to connect to the
> internet to download USB ModeSwitch. If not, then I guess I need to be
> better prepared next time! haha

No.

I have a modem that needs this magical mode-switching too - however I did 
have alternative Internet access to get the software required (I'm just 
using http://www.sakis3g.org/ when I need it)

So put sakis on a separate usb stick for next time :)

For those who don't know, the mode-switching is (I think) and attempt by 
the manufacturers to save a few cents per device by not including a usb 
hub in the device, or separate CD, etc. The device initially looks like a 
USB drive (and the one I have allows me to plug in a micro-sd card too), 
but you need to poke some magical command to it to switch off disk mode 
and switch on 3G modem mode - all this rather than install a few more 
gates to create a USB hub, I presume. Under Windoes, the tiny internal USB 
drive has the driver - although the one I have (ZTE MF-112) doesn't 
actually need a driver once it's switched, so the switching part is a 
total waste of time)

I've never been able to read the internal drive on it under Linux anyway, 
but I've not really tried that hard.

Gordon

Thanks for this info. For some reason the 3G USB Modem Device was showing as a USB Storage Device. Their seems to be another work around by disabling it as a storage device and configuring the modem via gnome-ppp - At this stage I have no idea how to do this yet. You would still need internet access to install gnome-ppp anyway I would imagine.

Cheers Gordon

Joe

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