TechFindings

There are countless guides on how to make your 3G USB Modem work on Linux. Here are some findings I made with E1550 on Ubuntu Lucid NBR.

Most importantly, the 1550 is a storage device, that later turns into a modem. To make this transformation happen, on Ubuntu you need to call a program called modem-modeswitch. I made a script for me:

  sudo umount /media/4GB
  sleep 1
  sudo umount /media/Comviq
  sleep 1
  sudo rmmod usb-storage
  sleep 1
  sudo /lib/udev/modem-modeswitch -v 0x12d1 -p 0x1446 -d -t option-zerocd 

Note:

1. My modem has space for a memory card, mine is formatted with the label 4GB and thus mounted on 4GB.
2. The modem-modeswitch command failed for me unless I ran rmmod (telling usb-storage uses the device). There are probably milder methods
3. Other guides will tell you how to make this automatically happen when you insert your modem

Now Network Manager didnt work for me, I didnt understand why, and installed GnomePPP instead. Very few configurations were needed. First add yourself to the UNIX group dip. This is what it should look like:

  gt@gt-701:~$ grep dip /etc/group
  dip:x:30:gt

Reboot – or whatever is needed to make that configuration effective.
To GnomePPP I gave very little information:

1. User = user
2. Number = *99#
3. Device = /dev/ttyUSB0
4. Type = USB Modem

Odd thing is that GnomePPP didnt accept an empty user name. I didnt need an APN to get online.