Support 3G dongle: Huawei E173

[dirk.grabner@…]

Hello friends,

here are the content of the file /proc/bus/usb/devices:

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 3
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.26.2 ehci_hcd
S:  Product=EHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:00.1
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=12d1 ProdID=1446 Rev= 0.00
S:  Manufacturer=HUAWEI Technology
S:  Product=HUAWEI Mobile
C:* #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=500mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
I:* If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

what I have to change in the configuration at the router?

Greets from Berlin

Dirk

[matthijs]

It seems this one still doesn't work in the latest beta.

[Conny Brunnkvist <conny@…>]

My E173u-1 modem needed just one change (Fonera 2.0n / 2.3.7.0 Beta 3):

uci set umtsd.option12D1140C.cmd=/dev/ttyUSB0

Then when next time you click "save" 3G settings in the GUI, /etc/config/umtsd gets rewritten accordingly.

The ProdID (12D1140C) might be slightly different for the E173.

[matthijs]

As part of the upcoming 2.3.7.0 firmware release, we're reviewing old open tickets to see if they are still relevant, which is why you get this response now.

We will revamp the 3G point at some point in the future. When this happens, we'll need to revisit supporting this 3G stick as well.

[matthijs]

#1244 is a duplicate (but not that that ticket, and the comment with a workaround above), talk about the E173u-1 modem, which is slightly different (different vidpid) from the E173.

[matthijs]

It seems the instructions from Conny are slightly incomplete (they assume that a section already exist and I think they won't survive a reboot). Here's a version that should work:

root@Fonera:~# uci set umtsd.option12D1140C=umtsdevice
root@Fonera:~# uci set umtsd.option12D1140C.cmd=/dev/ttyUSB0
root@Fonera:~# uci commit

[matthijs]

While experimenting with the new umtsd2, I discovered how to make the E173 work, even on the existing umtsd in the firmware. It turns out the usb-modeswitch command in the current firmware is wrong, the newest usb-modeswitch data has a different command in it. To fix this in the current firmware, open up the file /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1446 and replace the existing "MessageContent?" line with:

MessageContent="55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000"

This should cause the E173 to switch to 12d1:1433 instead of 12d1:1417. Then, you need to configure the right data and command ports:

root@Fonera:~# uci set umtsd.option12D11433=umtsdevice
root@Fonera:~# uci set umtsd.option12D11433.cmd=/dev/ttyUSB2
root@Fonera:~# uci set umtsd.option12D11433.data=/dev/ttyUSB0
root@Fonera:~# uci commit

Doing the above makes the E173 work on my system. Possibly it also works on the E173-u1, but I don't have one of those to test. I think this modem is also identified as 12d1:1446 (you can check this by running "cat /proc/bus/usb/devices" directly after plugging in the device, within a few seconds, and looking for "Vendor" and "ProdID"). Then the 12D11433 in the second set of commands need to be updated to the IDs the dongle switches to, which you can find using the same command, but now some 20-30 seconds (or later) after plugging in the modem.