Huawei E173 + Linux

What

Huawei E173 UMTS/HSUPA USB dongle

Why

Because most of the other pages out there on this subject seemed to miss the point.

Where?

Gentoo Linux, of course.

How

When you plug the device in, the following will occur:

Device powers on
Linux sees device
usb_modeswitch flips it to modem mode (from mass storage only mode)
various devices appear:
- wwlan<some long string> network device
- /dev/ttyUSB[0-2]
- /dev/sr0 (internal storage holding built-in drivers)
- /dev/sd - placeholder device or actual device for microSD memory card you insert.

Wuh?

You've probably notice that's not enough to get the device working. Unlike some other Huawei dongles, notably GSM USB dongles I have used, the network device is not the magic be-all and end-all that mystically configures your connection for you.

Instead, you need to set up old-school PPP to occur over the USB serial devices.

The modern way to do this is with wvdialconf which will detect your port and make some basic settings in /etc/wvdial.conf

Once those settings are in, you need to add some extra information along the lines of the following.

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = AT+CPIN?
Init3 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init4 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","uninet"
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99#
ISDN = 0
Username = internet
Password = internet
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 9600

In the above example, 'uninet' is the APN name, and 'IP' and 'internet' are just ready standbys. More info over here. Your mileage may vary. More config hints may be available for your SIM card's carrier over at the APN changer wiki or from your carrier's support staff.

To then try to get this actually online, type wvdial which will fire things up. Hopefully you will see something like the following:

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: AT+CPIN?
AT+CPIN?
+CPIN: READY
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","uninet"
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","uninet"
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.
--> Don't know what to do!  Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Fri Mar  7 14:34:53 2014
--> Pid of pppd: 8716
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: �~
--> pppd: �~
--> pppd: �~
--> pppd: �~
--> pppd: �~
--> local  IP address 172.22.223.57
--> pppd: �~
--> remote IP address 10.64.64.64
--> pppd: �~
--> primary   DNS address 221.3.131.11
--> pppd: �~

Troubleshooting

If you get NO CARRIER errors then you may have forgotten to add the AT+CGDCONT line which specifies your AP, or there might be no network around or your SIM isn't stuck in right or something.

If you don't see the devices appear in dmesg output when you plug in the dongle, you probably have no CONFIG_USB_SERIAL options enabled in your kernel, or you have a very old kernel, or something similar.

Best of luck!

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