Ubuntu – Mobile-Broadband stick sometimes not detected at all

12.04mobile-broadbandnetworkingusb

My mobile-broadband USB stick (lsusb: 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E169/E620/E800 HSDPA Modem) is sometimes detected and sometimes not.

Scenario: I plug-in the stick. It sometimes start to blink and the mobile broadband connection appears in network manager. Sometimes, after the plug-in, a return from suspend mode, or just after a disconnect, it's not starting to blink or just seldomly and the connection does not appear again.

lsusb does not find the device in the latter case. (Not as a normal USB stick, too – I am aware about the mode-switching issue in Linux, but this doesn't seem to be the problem here.)

Sometimes (in most cases) a reboot helps.

Could it be an issue with USB? Maybe something with not providing enough power?

The system:
Ubuntu 12.04 on ThinkPad T60

What I tried until now:

  • three different USB ports on the laptop plus using a USB-hub that is powered with an own power source

  • sudo service network-manager restart

  • sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart (is depricated)

  • sudo ifdown -a && sudo ifup -a

  • looking into the mode-switching issue, but since the stick is not listed at all instead of being listed as storage, this seems not to be the issue here)

Update:

tailf /var/log/syslog
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> Unmanaged Device found; state CONNECTED forced. (see http://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/191889)
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> Unmanaged Device found; state CONNECTED forced. (see http://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/191889)
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> (wlan0): now managed
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed') [10 20 2]
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> (wlan0): bringing up device.
Feb 13 09:54:08 laptop NetworkManager[2400]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'managed') [2]

Anybody any idea what the network manager is doing there and why?

Best Answer

This is a common problem of Huawei dongles and there is no clearly recognized fix for this. Some Huawei dongles simply switches off when you put your laptop into sleep mode. Here I'm explaining common workarounds you have.

After waking up from sleep, you have to usually remove and plug the 3G dongle back.
In most cases the dongle is re-detected automatically. If not you have to try following commands in your Terminal:

Restart the modem manager:

sudo restart modemmanager

Wait few seconds, until the dongle is prepared, and flip it into modem mode:

sudo eject sr1

(If you don't have an optical disc drive, change sr1 to sr0)

You can clearly identify whether the dongle is detected or not by reading the Linux kernel ring buffer. Execute this command in Terminal and plug in your dongle:

watch 'dmesg | tail -f'

A sample output:

enter image description here

In the above image my Huawei dongle has been successfully detected. You have to check whether your dongle gets detected like this after waking up from sleep.

It is known that some Huawei hardware doen't work properly without the proprietary driver.

You can install Huawei Mobile Partner software (which includes the driver) and try to establish Internet through it:

enter image description here

There is a higher chance that you can find the Huawei Mobile Partner available inside your dongle.

If you don't have the driver with you, heres how to download and install it:

Installing Huawei Mobile Partner 22

  • If you don't have Internet to the host machine, first click here & download the Huawei Mobile Partner 22 to your Home directory. Then execute the below command in Terminal:

    tar -xvzf megafone.tar.gz; cd mp22-linux-64; chmod +x install; sudo ./install

  • If you already have Internet to your machine copy the below command into the Terminal at once and execute it:

    wget -O mp22-linux-64.tar.gz https://db.tt/XtrP9KPw; tar -xvzf mp22-linux-64.tar.gz; cd mp22-linux-64; chmod +x install; sudo ./install

If your dongle is not detected by 22nd version of mobile partner, you may try installing 21 or 23.

Alternatively, you can use Sakis3G to connect your dongle to the Internet.

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