Ubuntu – How to install the Huawei E1550 dongle

11.103ghuaweiusb-modemusb-modeswitch

I'm a new user and can't have my Huawei E1550 dongle installed & connect to the internet. Can anyone help?

Using Ubuntu 11.10

Best Answer

Mode-switching – method one Thanks to OdyX (who maintains usb-modeswitch) this is the simplest method. Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type:

sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch usb-modeswitch-data

Mode-switching – method two On inserting the device, if you open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type dmesg you’ll see something like this:

[IMG]

The device has a small amount of storage space and identifies itself (on Windows) as a mass storage device, installs the driver and away you go. The problem is Ubuntu does what it is told to, it thinks its a mass storage device. The switch is never made in software because the software isn’t for Linux. We need to manually switch it using a little program that has been installed by default for a while now – “modem-modeswitch”. You need to pass it some parameters but we want the system to do this automatically when we insert the device – so we will configure a udev rule instead. Open a new file to store the rule by typing gksu gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/15-huawei-e1550.rules and paste in the following code:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb",SYSFS{idProduct}=="1446",SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1",RUN+="/lib
/udev/modem-modeswitch --vendor 0x12d1 --product 0x1446 --type option-zerocd"

Save the file and close the editor. Remove and re-insert the device. You should notice that service providers icon has popped up on the desktop – don’t worry about it as it is just the storage part of the device being recognized. Configuring the connection If you now click on the network-manager icon in the notification area, you’ll see a new option, “New Mobile Broadband (GSM) connection”

Related Question