Huawei E1550
I picked up a Huawei E1550 pre-pay mobile broadband dongle, £39.99 with 3 Mobile including 3Gb usage (note it’s not the device they’re picturing).
I’m on a course next month so that’ll do fine, I have no reception at home and am not away enough to warrant a contract.
It appears to identify itself as USB storage, to install drivers on Windows then flip-flops to a modem. Nice idea, terrible implementation, even in Windows where it installs drivers every time you use a different USB port (it’s often wise to try such devices in Windows – so you don’t chase your tail with a faulty device). Pretty sure it’s the autorun program that’s flipping the device.
Anyway for 8.10 you need udev-extras:
sudo apt-get install udev-extras
Add a udev rule:
gksu gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/15-huawei-e1550.rules
What we’re doing is telling udev that when this device is plugged in to switch its mode. Paste this and save:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",
SYSFS{idProduct}=="1446",
SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1",
RUN+="/lib/udev/modem-modeswitch --vendor 0x12d1 --product 0x1446 --type option-zerocd"
On next insertion, Network Manager’s mobile broadband configuration assistant will run – select “3 (handsets)”.
Also, the booklet that came with mine was fairly unhelpful but flashing green lights are powered, flashing blue show available networks and solid blue is connected to a network.
The differences with both Fedora and Arch are on my wiki pages.
Please don’t ask if it works in Linpus Linux Lite because I haven’t had that installed in ages. I suspect the Fedora guide will point the way but I know Acer have their own mobile broadband software for Huawei devices. Whether that extends to this model I couldn’t say.
What’s required to get it working out of the box in Karmic? A bug report in launchpad against udev?
Hi Marius, it has been fixed for Karmic:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/401655
Works fine! Cheers!
Good to hear, it’s an absolute necessity for me at the moment!
Hi,
I am using Ubuntu 8.04 and I tried to follow you instructions but when I pluged in the E1550 modem it only opened a window and showed the content inside the E1550 modem device.
Do you know what is missing here.
Yes, the device is being detected as a USB storage device – it sounds like you’ve missed a step but it might be a slightly different revision of the same model.
If you open a terminal and run the modeswitch manually, does it flip over?
Terminal does not recognize the modeswitch command.
I checked in /lib/udev/ and noticed that I don’t have modem-modeswitch. How can I install it?
When I run the following command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install udev-extras I got this error on terminal
W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/…86/Packages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.46 80]
Rest of the other were downloaded fine. BTW I am using Ubuntu 8.04
When I only run to install udv-extras then it fails
khurum@Khurum-ThinkPad:~$ sudo apt-get install udev-extras
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Couldn’t find package udev-extras
I think that is why I dont have modem-modeswitch in /lib/udev/ floder.
Any idea how can i get it.
udev-extras doesn’t appear to have modem-modeswitch in 8.04.
You can still install the program on its own, there is a guide on this guys blog – http://tux-n00b.blogspot.com/2009/05/huawei-ec168c-on-ubuntu-804-hardy-heron.html
Truly Excellent!
Many thanks for this clear and consise howto.
I got it working on a Samsung NC10 netbook and an LG Z1 Pro Express Dual laptop, both running Ubuntu 9.04, by following your clear instructions.
As I arrived back in the UK for my annual 5 weeks expatriate holiday in early September 2009 from the UAE this howto was very timely.
Thanks again.
sshproxy
No problem mate, glad it worked – quite like the NC10, is the battery life as good as is suggested?
download ubuntu 9.04 o karmic koala(9.10), this dristros of ubuntu work perfectly qith the 3g huawei modems, also ubuntu configure the modems automatic.
regards
As mentioned in the reply to post#3 – it had been patched but not released when I pubished this.
Thanks a lot!! This really worked for me!! Thanks again!!
@Imesh – glad it helped
I’ve updated my Wiki page as I realised the instructions for Fedora were incorrect http://wiki.lynxworks.eu/misc/e1550#fedora
Hi, I tried to install my Huawei E1550 3G/HDSPA modem using thius tutorial. After all, Network Mnagaer does recognize my device, but I cannot make it connect to the 3G network (DiGi.MOBIL – Romania). On Windows XP it’s working quite well. Do I have to make some additional settings? On XP I had to enter the APN phone number, which is *99# for Digi Mobil, and that was all, there is no Billing Plan associated as this is a service with no data-traffic limit.
I’m running Karmic Koala, and also couldn’t install udev-extras, I think it’s not available anymore. I’m also using PPPoE connection (from the same provider), which had to be configured with “pppeconf” due to a bug in Network Manager, which hasn’t been solved yet.
It appears a notification any time I try to connect, saying that “GSM network – Disconnected”
Please help someone!!
It sounds that the configuration is not correct in NM for that provider – I’m out of the country at the moment though so I can only really suggest filing a bug with NetworkManager’s team:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/network-manager
Well, this provider isn’t included in the list. They are still working on it, so it’s quite new. It’s been able in my country for a few months only. I can find only Orange and Vodafone for Romania, there is no other prov. I’ll try setting it up in Kubuntu or Xubuntu. I’m really curious to see if it’s working or not.
There is a Windows driver included on the stick, which installs “Mobile Partner”. There I had to set up a profile for this connection, and every time I try to connect, i’ll have to enable it. These are the settings from the Windows utility:
- IP Settings: Dynamic
- Authentication Protocol Settings: CHAP (this one is selected, the other one would be PAP, but I didn’t change this, so CHAP would be the default one)
- DNS Settings: Dynamic
- WINS Settings: Dynamic (i don’t know what this one is??)
- APN: Dynamic
- Authentication:
-Access Number: *99#
-username: blank
-password: blank
I’d really appreciate if someone could help me set up this connection. In network manager there are very few settings compared to “Mobile Partner”.
I don’t know, but maybe it has to do something with the fact, that Ubuntu Karmic mounts the stick as a removable drive. I also overrode those settings mentioned in the tutorial, namely to prevent Ubuntu mounting it when connected, and it doesn’t appear anymore.