Comments on: Ubuntu Linux + Dell Wireless 5700 CDMA/EVDO Card

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:47:54 +0000

Can the 5700 be set up to work on Crickets wireless network? I’m interested in their service but don’t want to be restricted to the USB wireless modem Cricket offers. The expresscard seems a little more feasible for my Lenovo S10. I’m currently running Ubuntu 8.10.

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:34:02 +0000

Hi ErikG… while I have not used Linpus, most of the underlying commands are all the same as long as they are installed. I noticed that you said “lusb” returns command not found. Unless your comment had a typo, it should be “lsusb”. This command is part of the Linux USB Utilities, which is typically included in most distributions of Linux.

Now, if Linpus has given you a default kernel with USB Serial support, then you should be able to use the card without issue. It’s just a matter of enabling the kernel module and associating it with the card (which may already be done for you). As this post is tested for Ubuntu, feel free to contact me off-line instead of this comment area. My contact info is available via my contact page.

By: ErikG

ErikG — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:02:32 +0000

Hey,
I’m a total Linux newbie. Just bought an Acer Aspire One with Linpus on it, intending to use with Verizon broadband. I got the USB720 and have not been able to get anywhere with it. As someone who has been trapped in the M$ world for 20 yrs, all these command lines are confusing. I can get to Terminal, but nothing seems to work. e.g., lusb returns command not found. I thought Mobile Partner might help, but no.

I’m starting to think that maybe Linpus is the prob, and I need Ubuntu. Any advice for a newbie to get my USB720 up and running? Thanks!!

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:37:21 +0000

Hey there. Unfortunately, it does not look like NM 0.7 will give you that menu item as 0.6 did. It’s probably being phased out with the introduction of the newer method of handling broadband cards. The CLI or some of the other ppp front ends will work for you. You could always try the latest NM from their PPA, and also keep up to date with the mbca project.

By: Paul Zimmerman

Paul Zimmerman — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:06:15 +0000

I love this info! I have used it a ton!

Here’s my question : Since my CMDA embedded card isnt supported yet with NM .7, can you create instructions to have it added to the NM menu like you did for the older NM? I ask becasue that would make it seamless to hop onto my CDMA network (the command line way works fine too)

Thanks!

By: J

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:02:43 +0000

Do I have to have ubuntu on the internet via some other means for this to work?

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:03:23 +0000

On a fresh install of Hardy Heron I also had a problem with usbview, however after following this post it worked…
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5403792
“Make sure you have usbfs mounted, which can be found in /etc/fstab, by adding the following line:

Code:
#
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults

Then ‘mount -a’ to make sure its mounted. You should now have a /proc/bus/usb directory heirarchy. The “new” udev and libusb will be using /dev/bus/usb, but many applications still use /proc/bus/usb, so we’ll mount it until that gets deprecated.”

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:38:40 +0000

Hi there. Thanks for visiting. Not every Linux distro uses the "ifup" command. However, if you have set up the dial-up profile correctly, then simply use the following command, replacing "verizon" with the name of the provider you specified in pppconfig:

pppd call verizon

Another command that typically works, and my preference since you can bring the connection up and down easily:

pon verizon poff verizon

If you run into errors... use another terminal and view the logs in real time:

tail -f /var/log/syslog

On a side note, I also noticed that a recent code formatting plugin for my site messed up a few characters in the post, namely the right arrows ">". Please check to make sure the redirected echo commands didn't run into issues. Looking the post over, I really need to update it for the upcoming NetworkManager versions which now include better handling of wireless dial-up connections. Stay tuned.

By: Frank Spin

Frank Spin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:40:21 +0000

This blog was a great find as my broadband card is the only thing that would make me switch back. Unfortunately I ran into errors while configuring the card. When I would run the iface command it would come back as “iface is not a recognized command”. Any ideas?

By: Zaigui Wang

Zaigui Wang — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:36:26 +0000

Perfect! Just what I am looking for. A couple of points to make:
- the ‘usbserial’ module actually is loaded by the airprime driver
- don’t blacklist the ‘airprime’ driver, as it is supposedly better suited for wireless broadband access than usbserial.

I am on Ubuntu 7.10. I did not have to load any extra module. Just start right from ‘pppconfig’…

By: Jonathan Rhodes

Jonathan Rhodes — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:40:54 +0000

Excellent advice. Thanks. Works with the Dell 5520 HSDPA modem too and is somewhat easier than getting it to work with Vista.

By: Will Smith

Will Smith — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 05:07:21 +0000

Awesome write-up! I just installed Ubuntu on my Dell XPS M1210 today and had the Verizon Broadband working in short order thanks to you.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:12:44 +0000

Thanks for the blog. Works great, except everytime I restart my system, the interfaces file reverts to “provider ppp0″. I have to change it to verizon and restart the dbus daemon. Why is my change not sticking?

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:48:04 +0000

Most of the instructions will work, as these cards typically all use the same usbserial kernel module. If this is not a Verizon card, there may be additional variables you may have to add to your ppp configuration.

By: Sugleknug

Sugleknug — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:04:38 +0000

Will this work for the Dell 5520 HSDPA card also?

By: benson margulies

benson margulies — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:16:40 +0000

I’m not doing too well with a V640. First of all, the network applet remains completely ignorant of this. So, I tried explicitly running pon, and I get:

Dec 7 17:15:15 bim1330 pppd[7614]: pppd 2.4.4 started by root, uid 0
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (BUSY)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (VOICE)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (NO DIALTONE)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (NO ANSWER)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: abort on (DELAYED)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: send (ATZ^M)
Dec 7 17:15:16 bim1330 chat[7616]: expect (OK)
Dec 7 17:16:01 bim1330 chat[7616]: alarm
Dec 7 17:16:01 bim1330 chat[7616]: send (AT^M)
Dec 7 17:16:01 bim1330 chat[7616]: expect (OK)

in the log.

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:49:43 +0000

No worries about “usbview”. Apparently it’s broken in Gutsy anyway, as the file it relies on (/proc/bus/usb/devices) no longer is recreated as it’s removed from the init scripts.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/+source/usbview/+bug/156085

Just rely on “lsusb”.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:33:58 +0000

I can’t get the usb viewer installed. Help!

Thanks

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:14:44 +0000

Chris,

Sorry for the delayed response. Has your card ever worked?

There’s a couple things to note with Verizon cards.

1. The card must be active on Verizon’s network. There’s an activation process for some (if not all) of the cards. Unfortunately, from my understanding, the software that ships with the card does this for you the first time you connect. This is done through Windows of course, but only needs to be done once.

2. If your card was already activated, and you get no carrier, I read that as layer-1 issue. i.e. card malfunction, poor signal, or related to the issue mentioned above.

What card model are you using? Visit my contact page, shoot me an email, so we can take up this issue off line.

By: gmendoza

gmendoza — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:05:21 +0000

Dave,

Cool deal. PPP support of Network-Manager is not as mature as it should be. I have been digging around for some time on this, and unfortunately, I have not found anything that will give us connection information or status for dialup connections. Of course, one can ask the Network-Manager developers on their mailing list:

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list

There was a recent thread regarding PPP, which pretty much sums up for now.

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2007-November/msg00043.html